l 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


The   big   leak    keeps    one   looking   after  it. — See 
page  137. 


STORE    MANAGEMENT 
-COMPLETE 


By  FRANK  FARR1NGTON 

K 

Author  of 

"  Retail  Advertising — Complete  ' 
"Talks  by  the  Old  Storekeeper" 
"The  Clerks'  Book,"  Etc.,  Etc. 


Chicago 

Byxbee  Publishing  Company 
440  So.  Dearborn  St. 


Copyright,  1911,  by 
BYXBEE  PUBLISHING  CO. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PAGE 

THE  MAN  HIMSELF 5 

What  a  merchant  is.  The  most  desirable  personality. 
Mental  and  physical  qualifications.  How  to  be  a  merchant. 
Overwork  and  its  disadvantages.  Possibilities  of  develop- 
ment. Proper  examples.  The  right  line  of  growth.  Suc- 
cess-making qualities. 

CHAPTER  II 
WHERE  TO  START 26 

Advantages  of  various  locations.  The  wisdom  of  chang- 
ing. How  to  make  the  most  of  a  poor  location.  Owning 
or  renting.  Which  side  of  the  street.  What  town.  Buy- 
ing a  store.  What,  where  and  when  to  buy.  How  to  avoid 
pitfalls  in  buying. 

CHAPTER  III 
STORE  ARRANGEMENT ' ...     47 

Making  entrance  easy.  Best  arrangement  of  windows. 
How  to  plan  the  lighting.  Heat  and  ventilation.  Keeping 
the  store  clean  inside.  Arrangement  of  counters,  shelving, 
departments,  etc.  Use  of  cellar,  ware-room,  stock-room. 
Utilizing  waste  space.  Systems  of  storing  extra  stock. 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  BUYING  END 72 

Stock  keeping.  Knowing  what  to  buy.  Stocking  new 
goods.  Buying  by  mail  and  from  traveling  salesmen. 
About  quantity  discounts.  Maintaining  credit.  Taking 
cash  discounts.  Keeping  track  of  bills  payable.  Copies  of 
orders.  Over-buying.  Commission  goods. 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  STORE  POLICY 93 

What  it  should  be  to  hold  trade.  The  money  back  plan. 
Taking  goods  back.  Meeting  cut  rates.  Selling  remnants. 
Delivering  goods.  Substitution.  Handling  telephone  calls. 
Generosity.  Rebating  railroad  fare.  Courtesy  to  cus- 
tomers. 

CHAPTER  VI 
CLERK  MANAGEMENT 113 

What  kind  of  clerks  to  hire.  How  to  treat  them.  The 
wage  question.  The  employer's  responsibility.  Helping 
clerks  to  make  good.  The  nagging  employer.  Making 
clerks  worth  more  money  to  themselves  and  to  their  em- 
ployer. 


2905?' 


Contents 

CHAPTER  VII  PAGE 

LEAKS        ..............   137 

Store  economies.  Caring  for  equipment.  Goods  wasted. 
Time  wasted.  Finding  little  leaks.  Handling  the  money. 
Money-saving  fixtures.  Cleanliness. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  STORE'S  NEIGHBORS    .........   156 

Relations  with  other  merchants.  Borrowing  competitors. 
Making  visiting  profitable.  Co-operation  among  local  mer- 
chants for  mutual  advantage.  Merchants'  associations. 
What  one  association  did.  A  "  Bargain  Week  "  sale  by  a 
whole  town. 

CHAPTER  IX 
WORKING  HOURS      ...........   172 

Holidays.     Overtime    when    business    demands    it.     Early 
sing  vs.  late  closing.     Clerks' 
Special   hours   for  special  sales. 


.  . 

closing  vs.  late  closing.     Clerks'   time  off.     Sunday  closing. 
cial 


CHAPTER  X 
EXPENSES       .............   188 

Cost  of  doing  business.  How  to  figure  cost  and  profit 
per  cents.  What  it  should  cost  to  do  business.  Profits 
on  side  lines  and  separate  departments.  What  should  be 
included  in  expenses.  Reducing  expenses  properly  and 
improperly.  Inventories. 

CHAPTER  XI 
THE  CREDIT  BUSINESS       .........  206 

The  advantages  of  the  cash  basis.  Which  plan  pays  best. 

What    "  cash    basis  "    should    mean.  Changing    from    credit 

to  cash.     Encouraging  cash  buying.  Whom  to  trust.     How 
to   collect   overdue   accounts. 

CHAPTER  XII 
WHAT  TO  SELL  ............  222 

The  staple  lines.  Advertised  goods.  Side  lines.  Branch- 
ing out  into  the  mail  order  business.  Cheap  goods  vs. 
quality  goods.  The  exclusive  store.  Making  cheap  goods 
sell  good  goods.  Meeting  mail  order  competition.  Other 
merchants'  lines;  your  right  to  sell  them.  The  use  of  trade 
journals. 

CHAPTER  XIII 
PREMIUM  GIVING     ...........  238 

Does  it  pay?  Trading  stamps.  Your  own  premium  plan. 
What  kinds  of  coupons  to  use.  What  kinds  of  premiums  to 
give.  Mutual  agreements  that  no  premiums  or  equivalent 
shall  be  given.  Making  premium  goods  attract  trade.  In- 
teresting the  women. 


CHAPTER  I  . 

THE    MAN    HIMSELF 

It  is  the  man  himself  that  makes  or  mars  the 
business. 

The  store  may  be  located  in  the  best  business 
section  of  the  town  and  it  may  be  full  of  goods 
properly  priced  and  generously  advertised  and  yet 
fail  because  of  the  man  behind  it  all. 

Of  course  the  merchant  who  is  big  enough' 
so  that  he  need  not  appear  in  person  behind  his 
counters  and  need  never  meet  a  customer  him- 
self, if  he  has  abundant  capital,  may  succeed 
though  he  be  not  the  kind  of  a  man  a  real  mer-% 
chant  should  be.  The  Big  Store  man  is  not 
necessarily  a  merchant.  He  is  more  of  a  finan- 
cier in  most  cases.  To  me  the  word  merchant 
means  a  man  who  can  manage  a  store  success-  4 
fully  without  calling  in  expert  help  in  any  of  the 
managing  departments. 

A  merchant  needs  to  be  an  all  around  man,  a 

man  who  knows  much  about  many  things,  who 

can  himself  do  any  part  of  the  store  work  if  need 

be,  in  order  to  show  an  employee  how  it  should 

5 


Store  Management — Complete 

be  done,  and  a  man  who  can  make  himself  agree- 
able to  people  and  exhibit  a  high  degree  of  pro- 
ficiency in  salesmanship. 

In  this  chapter  I  am  going  to  cover  the  char- 
acteristics desirable  in  a  man  who  would  be  a 
successful  merchant.  This  refers  to  the  mer- 
chant of  ANY  size,  for  the  greater  merchant 
must  start  as  a  lesser.  No  business  man  ever 
began  at  the  top  and  stayed  there. 

The  man  who  has  already  cultivated  the  qual- 
ities that  are  needed  to  make  success  will  find 
no  harm  in  having  their  importance  impressed 
upon  him,  and  the  man  who  lacks  one  or  many  of 
them,  and  I  know  of  no  one  who  possesses  all, 
may  be  encouraged  to  work  the  harder  to  achieve 
personal  perfection  if  its  financial  value  is  im- 
pressed upon  him. 

Business  of  all  kinds  is  to-day  so  strenuous  a 
struggle  that  the  man  who  expects  to  win  success 
must  make  and  keep  himself  as  nearly  physically 
fit  as  possible.  The  weakling  of  any  kind,  phys- 
ical, mental  or  moral,  cannot  win  out.  The  race 
is  to  the  strong  in  every  instance. 

One  of  the  first  requisites  for  a  successful 
merchant  is  a  strong  body,  a  good  physique,  a 
constitution  that  will  not  break  under  any 
amount  of  work  or  worry.  Both  work  and 
worry  will  come  in  abundance  to  the  man  in 
6 


Store  Management — Complete 

business;  the  former  without  limit  and  the  lat- 
ter limited  only  by  the  man's  ability  to  shed  it 
as  a  duck's  back  sheds  water.  The  difference 
between  work  and  worry  is  that  work  reduces 
the  amount  of  work  to  be  done,  while  worry  in- 
creases the  amount  of  worrying  necessary.  The 
more  a  man  works,  the  easier  work  is  for  him 
and  the  better  he  likes  it.  The  more  a  man 
worries,  the  easier  it  is  for  him  to  worry  and 
the  less  he  likes  it.  Both  are  habits  and  one 
is  just  as  beneficial  as  the  other  is  detrimental. 

The  more  a  man  worries,  too,  the  less  he  will 
like  to  work  and  the  more  work  he  will  have 
to  do.  Work  is  apt  to  reduce  work  and  worry 
is  certain  to  produce  work. 

An  active  mind  is  a  necessity  in  success-mak- 
ing. An  active  mind  is  not  long  possible  in  a 
weak  body.  The  mind  that  will  guide  a  busi- 
ness on  the  upward  path  must  be  a  clear  mind, 
sustained  by  a  body  that  is  not  hampered  by  any 
lack  of  energy  or  by  a  consciousness  of  any  in- 
feriority. 

They  used  to  say  that  "  All  work  and  no  play 
makes  Jack  a  dull  boy,"  and  that  was  years  ago 
when  play  was  viewed  in  a  very  different  way 
from  now.  Anything  trivial  was  unbecoming 
the  dignity  of  a  business  man.  Still  even  then 
there  evidently  were  those  who  could  see  the 
7 


Store  Management — Complete 

deadening  influence  of  all  work  and  no  play.  The 
consideration  was  then  more  a  mental  than  a 
physical  one. 

Jack  would  be  a  dull  boy  only  in  mind.  No 
thought  was  given  to  his  physical  condition  as 
a  result  of  all  work.  Nowadays  we  know  that 
the  play  is  a  necessity  in  order  to  produce  phys- 
ical health  and  that  the  mental  dullness  will  dis- 
appear along  with  the  coming  of  physical  well- 
being. 

There  is  no  set  of  rules  on  "  How  to  live  to 
be  a  hundred  years  old  "  that  does  not  include 
abundant  specifications  as  to  how  much  one 
should  be  outdoors.  Every  minute  that  can  be 
spared  ought  to  be  spent  in  the  open  air,  and  the 
younger  set  of  merchants  may  well  take  an  ac- 
tive part  in  outdoor  sports. 

The  great  bugaboo  of  the  merchant  who  is  be- 
ginning small  and  with  a  little  help  has  always 
been  "  I  can't  get  away/'  He  can't  spend 
enough  time  with  his  family  to  get  acquainted 
with  them  because  he  can't  be  away  from  the 
store.  He  can't  get  out  to  play  any  outdoor 
games  or  to  enjoy  any  of  the  things  that  the 
average  mechanic  or  factory  hand  can  enjoy,  be- 
cause he  is  tied  hand  and  foot  to  the  store. 

Why,  I've  seen  the  time  myself  when  I 
8 


Store  Management — Complete 

thought  I  oughtn't  to  take  time  for  my  meals 
and  have  had  them  brought  in  so  that  I  wouldn't 
miss  a  single  customer.  That  all  had  to  come 
to  an  end  in  my  case  or  I  myself  would  have 
come  to  an  end  and  I  dare  say  many  other  men 
are  in  the  same  boat,  although  some  of  them  do 
not  realize  it.  It  was  not  feasible  for  me  and 
it  is  not  feasible  for  you  to  work,  work,  work, 
night  and  day,  every  minute  the  store  can  possi- 
bly be  kept  open,  just  for  the  money  there  is  in 
it.  It  is  not  that  method  that  will  make  a  man 
a  great  success.  It  is  that  method  that  will  put 
him  in  such  shape  that  if  he  does  win  success  he 
will  not  be  able  to  enjoy  it. 

Success  is  not  to  be  gained  this  year  or  next. 
It  is  a  matter  of  many  years.  We  are  here  for 
life  and  we  will  not  be  able  to  make  more  than 
one  success  while  we  are  here.  We  have  all 
the  time  there  is  in  which  to  make  that.  Let  us 
not  try  to  do  two  years'  work  in  one,  or  try  to 
accomplish  this  year  what  we  ought  to  take  sev- 
eral years  for. 

Success  does  not  mean  fifteen  hours  a  day  in 
the  store.  It  does  not  require  that.  It  may 
come  in  spite  of  it,  but  never  on  account  of  it, 
and  if  it  should  come  it  would  not  be  real  suc- 
cess. Real  success  is  something  more  than  a 

9 


Store  Management — Complete 

merely  coldly  calculated  bank  account.  It  is 
enough  to  live  on,  friends  to  live  with  and  health 
to  enjoy  the  living. 

There  is  no  asset  that  is  worth  more  to  a  man 
in  satisfaction  or  in  dollars  and  cents  either,  than 
just  plain  Health !  It  is  the  only  asset  that 
stands  as  an  asset  when  it  is  unsupported.  All 
others ;  money,  land,  business,  prestige,  amount 
to  nothing  at  all  where  there  is  not  health  to  back 
them  up.  With  all  your  getting,  Mr.  Merchant, 
get  Health ! 

No  life  work  requires  so  much  in  a  man  as 
storekeeping.  The  lawyer  may  develop  one  or 
two  qualities  sufficiently  to  guarantee  him  suc- 
cess. The  doctor  may  specialize  similarly  and 
the  plumber  or  the  painter  may  gain  a  reputa- 
tion as  the  best  in  the  county  without  possessing 
the  rudiments  of  quality  in  any  other  than  one 
direction. 

The  merchant  must  develop  in  ALL  direc- 
tions. 

There  must  be  integrity;  yes,  absolute.  No 
store  whose  manager  is  anything  short  of  hon- 
est can  gain  a  reputation  for  square  dealing  with 
its  patrons  and  hold  it.  This  honesty  must  be 
more  than  technical.  It  must  be  more  than  the 
honesty  that  would  simply  refrain  from  stealing 
a  man's  pocketbook.  It  must  be  of  the  sort 
10 


Store  Management — Complete 

that  would  search  for  and  find  the  owner  of  the 
pocketbook  picked  up  on  the  street  or  in  the 
store. 

There  must  be  energy,  enterprise,  thorough- 
ness, sincerity,  adaptability,  self-confidence;  a 
thousand  and  one  virtues,  all  of  them  well  de- 
veloped. 

A  knowledge  of  the  business  from  the  ground 
up  is  practically  an  absolute  necessity  in  the 
case  of  the  merchant.  You  and  I  have  known  of 
plenty  of  cases  where  men  have  retired  from 
the  farm  or  the  factory  or  from  some  other  oc- 
cupation and  proceeded  to  put  what  little  capital 
they  had  accumulated  into  a  store,  thinking  that 
there  at  least  was  an  easy  job;  nothing  to  do 
but  buy  goods  and  then  sell  them  for  so  much 
more  than  they  cost  and  put  the  difference  in 
their  pockets. 

Where  are  they  now? 

These  men  did  not  grow  up  in  the  business. 
They  tried  to  start  in  at  the  top.  I  do  not  say 
that  no  one  could  make  a  success  of  a  business 
in  starting  in  after  arriving  at  mature  years. 
But  I  do  mean  that  no  rnan  can  make  much  of  a 
success  of  a  business  of  which  he  does  not  know 
the  whole  process.  He  may  start  in  late  in  life 
and  learn  the  ropes  from  the  beginning  without 
working  up,  but  this  is  more  difficult  and  less 
ii 


Store  Management — Complete 

likely  to  make  a  thorough  success  than  the  early 
beginning. 

You  who  are  already  in  business  are  older 
men,  men  whose  traits  of  character  are  fully  de- 
veloped. Your  gain  from  this  chapter  showing 
the  desirable  and  necessary  qualifications  of  suc- 
cess will  be  in  discovering  wherein  you  are  weak 
and  in  acquiring  a  determination  to  strengthen 
yourself  along  that  line  while  there  is  still  time 
to  do  so. 

You  who  are  young  men  and  yet  to  enter 
business  upon  your  own  responsibility  will  get 
the  full  benefit  by  having  impressed  upon  your 
minds  the  necessity  for  the  development  de- 
scribed. 

Self-confidence  is  an  important  quality  in  the 
man  who  starts  out  for  himself  in  a  business 
way.  People  are  very  apt  to  take  a  man  at  his 
own  valuation.  At  least  they  seldom  estimate 
him  above  his  own  rating.  On  this  account  the 
self-confident  man  who  can  step  out  into  the 
arena  and  appear  as  sure  of  winning  as  he  is  of 
trying  will  find  many  to  believe  in  him  with  no 
other  reason  for  that  belief  than  his  own  assur- 
ance. 

The  appearance  of  hesitation  is  often  fatal  in 
business.  It  is  fatal  in  its  effect  upon  employes 
or  customers.  When  a  customer  comes  into 
12 


Store  Management — Complete 

your  store  and  asks  if  a  certain  article  is  good, 
even  the  slightest  hesitancy  upon  your  part  will 
probably  spoil  the  sale.  If  you  are  not  sure 
about  your  goods,  you  are  not  doing  your  duty 
in  studying  your  stock.  You  should  KNOW 
what  is  what;  whether  each  article  will  bear 
recommending  or  not,  and  then  either  recom- 
mend it  strongly  or  say  that  it  is  not  of  the  first 
quality  but  good  value  for  the  price.  That  gets 
you  credit  for  honesty  at  least. 

In  that  same  way  self-confidence  helps  the 
effect  you  would  make  upon  anyone  at  any  time. 
There  should  be  faith  in  self  and  an  ability  to 
decide  quickly  what  stand  to  take  when  an  im- 
portant question  comes  up.  On  most  questions 
there  is  no  middle  ground,  and  anyway,  the  man 
who  looks  for  middle  ground  will  always  be 
suspected  by  everyone. 

Most  of  us  unconsciously  place  a  limit  upon 
our  own  business  and  upon  that  of  anyone  else. 
We  figure  that  under  favorable  circumstances  we 
could  run  the  sales  up  to  so  much  but  that  above 
that  figure  it  would  scarcely  be  possible  to  go. 
Another  man  with  a  bigger  outlook  and  used  to 
building  bigger  businesses  would  place  the  limit 
much  higher  than  we  would  do,  if  indeed  he 
placed  any  at  all,  and  he  would  get  the  business 
up  to  that  figure. 

13 


Store  Management — Complete 

There  should  be  no  limit  to  one's  business  am- 
bition. 

While  one's  business  and  one's  character 
growth  ought  to  be  mapped  out  in  advance, 
there  should  be  no  hard  and  fast  set  of  rules  laid 
down  to  hamper  freedom  of  selection  and  action, 
or  to  limit  growth. 

In  the  case  of  the  development  of  an  employee 
it  is  always  advantageous  to  all  concerned  if  he 
can  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  working  for  him- 
self, not  entirely  for  his  employer.  On  the  same 
principle,  in  the  case  of  yourself  and  myself  it 
will  be  equally  advantageous  if  we  can  assume 
the  position  that  we  are  not  working  entirely  for 
self,  but  as  much  for  some  higher  authority 
which  demands  of  us  the  best  in  every  way. 
Some  such  attitude  will  help  to  prevent  the 
slighting  of  work  and  being  satisfied  with,  less 
than  perfection. 

The  man  who  is  assuming  control  of  a  busi- 
ness needs  to  exercise  care  in  venturing  lest  he 
go  beyond  his  depth.  Better  to  wade  in  gradu- 
ally until  accustomed  to  the  feeling  of  the  water 
and  to  its  depth  before  striking  out  to  where 
men  have  been  drowned. 

In  considering  the  capital  for  starting  into 
business  or  for  continuing  in  it  most  merchants 
take  account  of  money  values  only.  They  con- 
14 


Store  Management — Complete 

sider  cash  on  hand,  notes  and  bills  receivable, 
real  estate,  life  insurance,  etc.,  and  they  fail  to 
estimate  the  value  of  what  is  many  times  the 
best  of  the  available  parts  of  capital,  Ability. 
The  man  who  wants  to  borrow  money  from  the 
bank  will  often  be  unable  to  get  it  for  business 
purposes,  no  matter  what  his  signer's  responsi- 
bility, if  he  himself  is  known  to  have  no  ability 
to  handle  the  business  he  is  running. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  he  has  developed  a 
known  ability,  that  quality  will  stand  for  security 
in  the  eyes  of  the  bank,  sometimes  beyond  a 
responsible  signer.  Authentic  sources  give  the 
amount  of  "  one-name  "  paper  in  the  banks  of 
the  country  as  two-thirds  of  the  total.  Do  you 
suppose  that  any  of  the  one-name  paper  is  bear- 
ing the  names  of  men  who  are  known  to  be 
lacking  in  ability  to  handle  their  business  as 
shown  by  the  results  of  past  managership? 

That  consideration  should  deter  you  from  tak- 
ing unnecessary  chances  and  from  venturing 
when  the  possibilities  of  success  are  diminu- 
tive. 

Some  men,  often  those  who  have  been  the 
acme  of  meekness  when  in  a  subservient  posi- 
tion, become  veritable  autocrats  when  placed  in 
positions  of  a  little  authority.  Authority  is  a 
good  thing  to  use  with  care.  It  ought  not  to 
15 


Store  Management — Complete 

puff  a  man  up  like  a  balloon,  for  in  all  proba- 
bility no  one  regards  him  as  being  as  important 
as  he  thinks  he  is.  The  man  in  authority  should 
be  proud  to  be  privileged  to  help  in  shaping  the 
destinies  of  others,  but  he  should  wield  his 
sceptre  with  care  in  order  not  to  rap  anyone  upon 
the  head  with  it. 

The  type  of  employer  who  gets  the  most  out 
of  his  men  is  not  he  who  drives  and  scolds 
them,  nor  he  who  depends  entirely  upon  prize 
offers  to  incite  them  to  rivalry.  It  is  not  the 
''man  who  watches  every  move  and  tries  to  fur- 
nish brains  for  every  individual  man  on  his 
checker-board.  It  is  the  man  who  is  broad- 
minded  and  generous  with  his  helpers,  taking 
them  into  his  plans  and  allowing  them  to  share 
in  the  successes  of  his  business.  He  encourages 
initiative  and  studies  how  he  may  help  each  one 
up  the  ladder.  He  commends  only  when  com- 
mendation is  deserved  and  he  condemns  spar- 
ingly but  frankly.  Such  a  man  has  his  employes 
working  with  him  instead  of  merely  for  him. 

If  you  are  the  business  man  who  is  run  by 
his  store  instead  of  running  it,  you  are  on  the 
wrong  tack.  Plenty  of  merchants  go  to  the  wall 
simply  because  they  are  carrying  their  business 
upon  their  shoulders  like  an  inverted  pyramid 
instead  of  making  it  carry  them  at  its  apex  with 
16 


/  thought  I  oughtn't  take  time  for  my  meals.- 
See  page  9. 


Store  Management — Complete 

nothing  of  the  petty  and  unnecessary  details 
reaching  them.  For  the  manager  of  a  store  to 
attend  to  the  minor  details  that  a  ten  dollars  a 
week  clerk  would  attend  to  just  as  well  is  the 
same  kind  of  economy  as  would  be  used  in 
taking  high  class,  coated  book  paper  for  wrap- 
ping up  such  articles  as  stovepipe  and  oilcloth. 

System  is  necessary  to  make  a  manager's  work 
easy  and  also  to  make  it  possible  to  get  the  best 
results  from  employes.  System  is  simply  order 
in  the  place  of  chaos.  There  are  men  who  al- 
low help  to  stand  around  for  hours  at  a  stretch 
with  nothing  to  do  and  then  proceed  to  load 
them  up  with  all  the  extra  work  possible  at  a 
time  when  everything  else  that  needs  doing 
comes  along.  It  is  possible  and  proper  to  se- 
cure such  a  division  of  work  as  will  equalize  it 
through  the  day,  leaving  routine  duties  and  regu- 
lar store  work  out  of  the  hours  when  the  rush 
of  customers  is  most  likely  to  occur. 

The  systematic  man  accomplishes  the  most 
with  the  least  possible  amount  of  help  in  just 
this  way.  He  economizes  his  own  time  and  the 
time  of  everyone  whose  time  costs  him  money. 
He  keeps  his  work  caught  up  and  the  result  is 
that  he  is  never  harassed  by  overdue  tasks. 

All  of  us  covet  advanced  position.  We  want 
to  be  at  the  head  of  a  bigger  business  either  by 


Store  Management — Complete 

making  our  own  business  grow  great  or  by 
changing  to  another  that  is  great.  We  look  for- 
ward to  the  time  when  we  will  be  able  to  step  into 
increased  responsibility. 

Do  we  take  pains  to  spend  some  time  each  day 
in  fitting  ourselves  for  the  advancement?  No, 
we  do  not.  We  studied  perhaps  when  we  were 
clerks  and  wanted  to  learn  enough  about  the 
business  to  enable  us  to  get  to  be  our  own 
bosses,  but  since  that  time  we  have  not  realized 
that  we  could  make  ourselves  worth  more  money 
to  our  own  business  by  continuing  to  study. 

There  can  be  no  advancement  without  new 
phases  and  new  questions  arising  constantly  to 
call  for  decision.  In  order  to  be  able  to  meet 
the  new  situations  successfully  we  must  have 
advance  knowledge  of  them  and  this  is  only 
possible  by  studying  our  business  ahead,  finding 
out  how  it  should  be  run  when  it  gets  a  little  big- 
ger than  it  is  now. 

In  this  way  we  not  only  fit  ourselves  to  do  our 
share  of  the  new  work  profitably,  but  we  are 
also  able  to  teach  others  dependent  upon  us  how 
their  share  should  be  done  and  this  is  of  impor- 
tance equal  to  our  own  individual  part  of  the 
work,  for  a  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest 
link. 

Initiative  is  an  individual  quality,  but  its  pos- 
18 


Store  Management — Complete 

session  is  less  a  matter  of  chance  or  environment 
than  of  preparation. 

Preparation  too,  by  teaching  us  what  to  ex- 
pect, shows  us  how  to  meet  conditions  that  re- 
quire resistance.  We  are  not  caught  napping 
by  unexpected  conditions.  Hence  we  do  not 
achieve  failure  through  lack  of  preparation 
which  is  as  much  a  necessity  to  a  merchant  as 
to  the  professional  man. 

In  your  town  and  in  mine  there  are  merchants 
who  are  commonly  called  enterprising.  You 
know  who  they  are.  They  are  the  men  who  do 
things,  men  who  are  up  to  date  in  stock  and  in 
methods.  They  are  the  merchants  who  are  get- 
ting the  trade.  Are  you  one  of  the  enterprising 
men  or  are  you  simply  following  along  in  the 
same  old  rut  year  after  year,  satisfied  with  what 
you  get  as  a  result  of  routine  effort?  Any  mer- 
chant can  be  enterprising  if  he  will  take  the 
trouble,  but  one  cannot  be  enterprising  and  easy 
going  at  the  same  time.  One  cannot  seize  op- 
portunities with  an  unenterprising  hand. 

Lack  of  enterprise  is  sometimes  caused  by 
self-satisfaction.  This  is  very  different  from 
self-confidence.  In  fact  I  might  almost  say  that 
lack  of  enterprise  is  self-satisfaction. 

The  man  who  thinks  his  present  environment 
is  the  best  there  could  be  for  business  and  that 
19 


Store  Management — Complete 

his  present  methods  are  the  best  methods  he 
could  use  is  going  to  suffer  defeat  because  of  his 
self-satisfaction.  He  will  not  take  advantage  of 
the  new  methods  that  others  find  profitable  be- 
cause he  is  a  grandfather  man.  He  does  things 
the  way  his  grandfather  did  them  and  he  thinks 
that  way  is  all  right.  It  is  all  wrong  and  I  will 
guarantee  it  to  produce  a  first  class  failure  in  due 
time. 

Don't  be  a  grandfather  man ! 

The  grandfather  man  is  not  posted  on  to-day's 
ways.  He  could  make  an  appointment  with  you 
for  "  sometime  to-morrow  "  and  keep  you  won- 
dering all  day  at  what  hour  he  would  come.  He 
would  get  mad  at  the  mistakes  of  a  wholesale 
house  and  write  them  a  red  hot  letter  instead  of 
seeking  an  amicable  settlement  of  his  complaint. 
He  would  be  cross  with  the  man  who  comes  in  to 
collect  a  bill  and  he  would  advertise  in  a  way 
that  would  use  up  perfectly  good  money  without 
bringing  any  returns. 

You  have  heard  it  said  of  an  occasional  man 
that  "  everything  is  grist  that  comes  to  his  mill." 
Well,  such  a  man  may  be  accused  of  making 
use  of  his  friends,  but  he  will  certainly  get  ahead. 
It  will  pay  you  to  take  note  of  everyone  with 
whom  you  come  in  contact  and  see  that  you  gain 
something  by  the  contact.  Every  man  to  whom 
20 


Store  Management — Complete 

you  can  talk  about  your  business  will  give  you, 
if  you  work  it  right,  some  ideas  of  value  to  you 
in  that  business.  Every  man  knows  more  about 
something  than  you  or  I  know. 

The  man  who  does  not  prepare  himself  well 
for  the  business  he  is  going  to  run  invites  dis- 
aster from  incompetence.  Incompetence  is  a 
real  rather  than  an  imaginary  failing.  It  is  a 
concrete,  rather  than  an  abstract  quality.  And 
its  fatal  effect  may  be  estimated  when  you  realize 
that  Bradstreet  lays  at  its  door  one  failure  out  of 
every  five.  Incompetence  is  something  that  the 
man  who  will  may  overcome.  He  can  acquire 
proper  knowledge  of  business  before  starting  in, 
or  if  he  finds  himself  in  business  and  incompe- 
tent to  carry  it  on  sucessfully,  he  can  acquire 
the  quality  of  studying  the  methods  of  successful 
men,  by  talking  with  successful  men  and  by  ask- 
ing advice  of  successful  men. 

Good  business  literature  is  plenty  nowadays 
and  there  is  little  excuse  for  him  who  does  not 
learn  when  opportunities  are  plenty.  The  mer- 
chant who  takes  two  or  three  good  trade  jour- 
nals covering  his  lines  and  reads  them  carefully 
need  not  fail  from  incompetence. 

And  speaking  of  failures,  Bradstreet  attrib- 
utes more  failures  to  lack  of  capital  than  to  any 
other  cause.  To  the  man  who  has  got  into  busi- 
21 


Store  Management — Complete 

ness  on  borrowed  capital,  as  most  of  us  did,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  avoid  getting 
out  beyond  his  depth.  He  must  buy  sparingly 
and  turn  his  stock  over  often.  He  cannot  afford 
the  luxury  of  a  big  stock.  And  if  he  finds  him- 
self overstocked  he  must  waste  no  time  in  put- 
ting on  some  special  sales  that  will  reduce  his 
tied  up  capital  to  a  minimum  and  put  more 
money  in  the  bank. 

To  the  young  man,  the  clerk  who  is  anxious 
to  get  into  business  for  himself,  one  word  is 
necessary.  Wait !  Go  slow  and  do  not  embark 
until  you  have  enough  money  and  enough  con- 
servative backing  to  see  you  through  many  a 
tight  place,  for  tight  places  there  will  be  in 
plenty. 

The  qualities  in  addition  to  capital  that  are 
necessary  to  pull  a  man  through  tight  places  are 
clear  grit  and  determination.  A  good  supply  of 
those  two  is  really  worth  as  much  as  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  in  money,  and  the  ten  thousand 
without  those  qualities  would  not  last  long. 
Money  needs  character  behind  it  more  than 
character  needs  money.  With  a  good  business 
character  well  developed  you  can  get  money,  but 
no  amount  of  money  will  buy  the  character. 

The  man  who  would  succeed  as  a  merchant 
must  be  no  dilly-dally  sort  of  chap.  He  must  be 

22 


Store  Management — Complete 

a  man  who  would  not  stand  upon  the  order  of 
his  going,  but  go  at  once.  He  must  be  the  sort 
that  Henry  M.  Stanley  was.  The  New  York 
Herald  sent  word  to  Stanley,  "  Go  and  find  Liv- 
ingstone." Did  Stanley  wire  back,  "  I  don't 
know  where  he  is  " ;  "  When  do  you  want  me 
to  go?"  "How  much  will  you  pay?"  "Are 
you  sure  he  is  alive  ?  "  or  any  other  question  ? 
Not  much.  He  packed  up  and  started  —  and 
he  found  Livingstone  too ! 

The  merchant  must  be  an  observant  man.  He 
must  be  observant  of  his  public  and  know  their 
tastes  and  their  needs.  He  must  be  observant 
of  individual  customers.  He  must  be  particu- 
larly observant  of  his  help. 

Some  men  are  born  to  command.  They  han- 
dle employes  as  easily  and  as  naturally  as  they 
handle  their  arms  and  legs.  Other  men  handle 
clerks  with  about  the  same  ease  and  grace  with 
which  a  woman  handles  a  snow-shovel.  They 
drag  from  them  by  main  force  all  they  get  out  of 
them. 

There  is  as  much  reason  in  a  clerk  wanting  a 
desirable  type  of  employer  as  there  is  in  the 
employer  wanting  desirable  clerks.  The  right 
sort  of  an  employer  gets  out  of  clerks  all  the 
work  they  can  do  without  their  feeling  that  he 
is  interested  in  them  only  for  what  they  can  do 
23 


Store  Management — Complete 

for  him,  and  he  gives  them  the  idea  that  he  is 
interested  in  them  from  motives  of  personal  feel- 
ing rather  than  merely  as  an  investment. 

Courtesy,  tact,  sympathy;  these  are  all  neces- 
sary qualifications  for  the  successful  handling  of 
men.  You  can  catch  more  flies  with  molasses 
than  you  can  with  vinegar  and  you  get  clerks 
more  deeply  interested  in  your  business  by  treat- 
ing them  well  and  by  using  the  Golden  Rule  in 
your  relations  with  them  than  you  can  by  tying 
a  halter  around  their  necks  and  trying  to  drag 
them  where  you  want  them  to  go. 

No  one  man  can  acquire  a  monopoly  of  all  the 
virtues  that  are  desirable  in  a  merchant.  No 
one  man  will  ever  be  the  perfect  merchant.  It  is 
however  worth  while  to  try  for  it.  Hitch  your 
ambitions  to  a  star.  High  aim  is  the  thing  and 
if  you  fall  short  of  that  which  you  aim  to  do, 
you  will  at  least  do  better  than  if  you  had  not 
tried  and  you  will  be  benefited  by  the  attempt. 

Storekeeping  is  as  great  an  occupation  as  any 
I  know.  It  requires  as  high  an  order  of  intelli- 
gence. It  calls  for  prompt  action  all  of  the 
time.  It  needs  foresight,  caution,  boldness.  It 
demands  enthusiasm,  optimism  and  conserv- 
atism, all  mixed  together  in  a  proper  degree,  and 
it  is  such  a  mixture  as  no  professional  man  can 
compound.  None  but  the  merchant  ever  gets 
24 


Store  Management — Complete 

together  the  ingredients  necessary  to  his  success, 
in  the  right  proportion. 

It  is  mighty  easy  for  a  man  to  let  down.  En- 
thusiasm is  a  quality  that  will  not  keep  itself 
up  to  the  highest  pitch  voluntarily.  It  requires 
will  power  behind  it,  and  that  homely  quality 
called  "  gumption." 

It  is  easy  to  stop  just  short  of  success  and 
many  a  man  has  unwittingly  done  that  very 
thing  simply  because  he  got  tired.  There  is  no 
virtue  in  good  intentions.  Hell  is  paved  with 
them.  We  are  not  going  to  be  judged  by  what 
we  intended  to  do,  but  by  what  we  actually  ac- 
complish, and  if  we  do  not  keep  right  up  to 
high  speed  most  of  the  time,  that  will  be  mighty 
little. 

There  must  be  a  basis  upon  which  to  start,  a 
determination  to  win  and  a  character  back  of 
that  determination  that  will  carry  it  through. 
There  must  be  enough  knowledge  of  business  to 
make  possible  an  intelligent  beginning,  and  there 
must  be  a  desire  to  learn  more  in  order  to  keep 
pace  with  the  growth  of  the  demand. 

Not  every  man  can  be  a  storekeeper  and  suc- 
ceed at  it.  If  you  believe  that  you  can,  come 
on  in. 


CHAPTER  II 

WHERE    TO    START 

The  old  superstition  that  a  good  beginning 
makes  a  bad  ending  has  nothing  to  do  with  busi- 
ness. In  trade  the  bad  beginning  makes  a  bad 
ending  and  it  makes  it  very  soon. 

There  is  everything  in  a  good  start  and  there 
is  the  seed  of  failure  in  any  other  kind.  It  is 
hard  enough  to  make  a  success  of  a  store  with 
the  conditions  all  favorable.  No  need  of  look- 
ing up  handicaps. 

Where  shall  I  start  a  store  or  buy  one?  That 
is  the  vital  question  with  the  young  would-be 
merchant. 

Will  it  pay  me  to  change  my  location?  That 
is  the  question  that  agitates  the  mind  of  the  man 
who  finds  his  trade  perhaps  slipping  away  or 
finds  that  he  is  not  developing  the  business  as 
he  hoped  to  do. 

If  I  am  to  buy  my  first  store,  or  if  I  am 
thinking  of  buying  another  in  some  other  loca- 
tion, where  shall  I  buy  it  and  what  kind  shall  I 
buy?  More  questions  of  importance.  Also  is 
26 


Store  Management — Complete 

it  better  for  me  to  start  a  new  store,  buy  an  es- 
tablished business  or  take  up  one  that  is  being 
closed  out  for  some  reason  or  other? 

They  say  that  a  fool  can  ask  more  questions 
than  ten  wise  men  can  answer.  If  that  be  true, 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  number  of  questions  a 
shrewd  business  man  can  ask  about  the  condi- 
tions for  starting  a  store  or  re-starting  one. 

As  to  location,  whether  a  man  is  starting  a 
new  store,  buying  an  established  business  or 
adding  a  branch,  it  is  all  the  same  when  it  comes 
to  picking  out  the  place  to  start  or  to  buy.  It 
is  a  question  of  what  location  will  produce  the 
most  trade. 

There  must  be  in  this  connection  a  careful  con- 
sideration of  the  class  of  trade  wanted.  Also 
the  amount  of  capital  available  is  important  in 
its  bearing. 

One  thing  is  certain,  the  number  of  people 
who  pass  the  location  in  a  day  is  important  and 
it  can  be  ascertained  easily  with  a  man  and  a  lit- 
tle numbering  machine  or  numbering  stamp  — 
anything  that  can  be  used  automatically  to  reg- 
ister units  of  counting.  Hire  a  man  to  sit  in  a 
window  or  stand  in  an  out  of  the  way  place  and 
keep  a  record  of  passers  by.  This  record  will 
form  a  basis  upon  which  to  make  calculations. 
It  will  gauge  the  worth  of  the  store  windows 
27 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  if  the  record  further  shows  the  class  of 
the  people  who  pass  it  will  determine  to  an  ex- 
tent the  class  of  trade  a  store  there  might  most 
easily  command. 

The  mistake  should  not  be  made  in  figuring 
on  the  number  of  passers  by  of  thinking  that 
necessarily  the  place  showing  the  greatest  crowd 
is  the  best  location.  A  nearby  factory  might 
crowd  the  streets  in  a  locality  at  certain  hours 
without  making  business.  The  proximity  of 
large  stores  with  many  employes  going  and  com- 
ing might  influence  one  to  his  detriment.  Qual- 
ity of  crowd  is  even  more  important  than  quan- 
tity. A  steady  crowd,  though  small,  is  better 
than  a  spasmodic  large  rush. 

In  general  the  best  location  for  a  store  is  in 
a  section  where  there  are  many  stores.  People 
go  to  shop  where  the  most  shops  are.  If  a  man 
were  of  the  opinion  that  he  would  get  more 
trade  by  having  it  all  to  himself  and  should  lo- 
cate in  some  place  where  there  were  no  other 
stores  he  would  die  of  starvation.  He  would 
not  even  get  the  trade  of  that  locality,  for  the 
people  living  next  to  him  would  go  into  the  gen- 
eral retail  section  to  buy.  A  neighborhood  store 
will  never  be  anything  but  a  neighborhood  store. 
For  it  to  become  anything  else  would  be  moving 
the  mountain  to  Mahomet. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

And  in  locating  in  a  business  section,  one 
should  locate  in  a  strictly  retail  section.  A 
banking  office  section  might  do  for  a  small  store 
that  wanted  the  trade  of  the  office  men  or 
bankers,  but  it  would  not  answer  to  get  the  gen- 
eral shopping  trade.  Trade  follows  the  flag 
abroad,  but  it  follows  the  crowd  at  home. 

One  thing  is  certain,  if  you  have  a  location 
where  you  are  doing  a  fair  business  now,  you 
will  be  foolish  to  make  any  change  unless  you 
can  get  just  such  a  location  as  you  have  dreamed 
about.  There  is  no  money  in  changing  for  some- 
thing just  as  good  or  for  something  just  a  little 
better.  The  cost  in  money  and  loss  of  customers 
in  changing  is  too  great  to  make  that  profitable. 

The  man  who  is  dissatisfied  with  his  location 
and  is  determined  to  move  should  keep  a  care- 
ful watch  for  opportunity  elsewhere.  The  best 
plan  is  to  find  what  you  want  and  then  make 
your  opportunity  to  get  it.  Get  your  mind  set- 
tled upon  a  location  that  is  a  possibility,  not  on 
one  that  it  is  a  foregone  conclusion  you  never 
can  get,  and  then  bend  every  effort  to  secure  it. 

In  going  into  a  new  section  of  the  city  or  into 
a  different  city  or  town  the  greatest  care  must 
be  made  to  study  the  habits  and  customs  and  re- 
quirements of  the  new  territory.  Because  you 
are  able  to  handle  a  certain  store  well  and  sell 
29 


Store  Management — Complete 

large  quantities  of  certain  goods  does  not  argue 
that  a  different  section  will  want  the  same  kind 
of  service  or  at  all  the  same  sorts  of  goods. 

The  public  must  be  studied  carefully  to  make 
any  store  a  success,  even  in  the  store  you  are 
already  in,  and  unusual  care  must  be  exercised 
in  getting  acquainted  with  a  new  trade  center. 

There  are  plenty  of  merchants  who  are  satis- 
fied to  let  well  enough  alone.  They  are  getting 
a  good  business  where  they  are  and  they  do  not 
care  to  take  any  chances  in  changing  and  the 
amount  of  labor  and  expense  involved  in  a 
change  is  not  attractive  to  them.  Of  course 
there  will  always  be  plenty  of  men  who  are 
easily  satisfied  and  then  too  there  are  plenty  of 
stores  that  are  so  situated  that  they  can  in- 
crease their  business  as  much  where  they  are  as 
in  any  location  they  could  choose.  But  the  fact 
that  one  can  succeed  on  a  side  street  or  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  street  does  not  argue  that  it 
would  not  be  productive  of  a  bigger  success  to 
move.  Stores  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  street 
never  succeed  there  on  account  of  the  location. 
They  may  succeed  in  spite  of  it.  That  is  all. 

It  is  ambition  that  gets  a  man's  ideas  above 

his  present  business  and  makes  him  want  to  go 

farther.     Ambition  is  a  common  thing  and  works 

wonders  where  it  is  properly  handled.     If  you 

30 


Store  Management — Complete 

are  ambitious,  try  to  give  your  ambition  a  little 
leeway  and  see  what  it  will  do  for  you  in  the 
direction  of  improvement  in  location. 

In  moving,  it  should  be  considered  that  your 
present  location  is  very  likely  to  be  snapped  up 
by  someone  who  would  profit  by  your  estab- 
lished position  and  prestige  among  people  who 
would  continue  to  drop  into  the  old  stand  be- 
cause they  did  not  hear  of  trie  change  or  be- 
cause they  found  the  location  a  convenient  one. 
It  is  up  to  your  advertising  to  take  the  trade 
with  you  when  you  move. 

Whatever  your  new  location  may  be,  see  that 
the  store  is  made  thoroughly  modern  BEFORE 
you  move  in.  It  is  no  trouble  to  have  almost 
anything  done  in  the  way  of  painting  and  repairs 
while  the  store  is  empty,  but  after  you  are  in 
there,  it  will  be  a  tremendous  job  to  do  so  simple 
a  thing  as  to  paint  up  the  interior.  Better  delay 
moving  a  year  even  and  borrow  more  money 
for  it  in  order  to  get  things  right  to  start  with. 

The  store  must  be  level  with  the  pavement. 
Its  windows  must  be  properly  planned.  It 
ought  if  possible  to  be  a  corner  store  with  the 
windows  on  the  side  street.  Don't  move  into 
a  corner  store  without  having  side  street  door 
and  windows.  Otherwise  you  waste  a  big 
source  of  revenue. 

3* 


Store  Management — Complete 

You  make  a  change,  if  you  make  it,  or  you 
locate  in  the  first  place  with  a  view  to  pushing 
your  business  along  the  line  of  the  least  re- 
sistance. * 

If  it  is  a  possible  thing  for  you  to  handle  the 
financial  end  of  it,  when  you  find  the  RIGHT 
location,  buy  rather  than  rent.  It  is  cheaper  to 
own  your  own  real  estate  and  it  insures  your 
permanent  location. 

The  less  experience  a  merchant  has  had,  the 
less  his  qualifications  for  running  a  store,  the 
more  necessary  that  conditions  be  favorable  for 
his  business,  hence  the  more  necessary  it  is  for 
him  to  have  a  good  location.  The  better  the 
location,  the  more  business  he  will  do  while  he 
is  learning  the  business  methods  and  the  faster 
he  will  learn  them. 

The  conspicuous  location  is  a  better  trade  get- 
ter than  the  inconspicuous  and  this  makes  the 
corner  store  better  and  the  flat-iron  location  best. 
A  store  where  it  will  be  seen  by  people  coming 
from  either  direction  so  that  its  sign  will  advertise 
it  to  every  stranger  and  newcomer,  will  get  trade 
in  spite  of  disadvantages  that  will  keep  people 
away  from  a  store  huddled  down  in  the  middle 
of  the  block  where  it  is  almost  hidden  from  sight 
between  stores  of  three  times  its  size  and  has 
32 


:\RY 


Good    business   literature   is   plenty   nowadays.- 
See  page  21. 


Store  Management — Complete 

no    opportunity   to    make    its    individuality    ap- 
parent on  the  outside. 

Narrow  sidewalks  on  a  street  where  there  is 
much  travel  reduce  the  value  of  the  windows. 
There  is  no  fun  in  stopping  to  gaze  into  a  win- 
dow with  people  crowding  up  behind  you  and 
stepping  on  your  heels  every  minute  and  no 
woman  will  stop  there.  The  busy  street  should 
have  walks  wide  enough  to  give  window  gazers 
a  chance,  or  the  store  front  should  be  indented 
to  make  room  for  them. 

The  post  office  in  the  average  town  is  a 
neighbor  for  a  store.  It  draws  everyone  with 
an  irresistible  force.  People  have  to  go  to  the 
post  office.  Other  public  buildings  are  a  detri- 
ment. They  occupy  a  good  deal  of  space  and 
are  large,  making  the  store  look  small,  and  then 
they  draw  very  few  people  into  the  neighbor- 
hood. 

One  big  store  will  bring  more  people  your 
way  than  a  dozen  court  houses  even  if  the  for- 
mer is  a  competitor. 

Look  out  for  overhead  viaducts  of  any  sort. 
Any  constructive  work  present  or  future  that 
makes  the  location  dark  or  dirty  or  attracts  any 
undesirable  element  will  injure  business. 

On  the  other  hand  street  railway  junctions  or 
33 


Store  Management — Complete 

places  where  many  people  take  the  cars  attract 
business.  The  more  transportation  lines  there 
are  delivering  people  to  a  point,  the  better  that 
point  for  business.  A  section  around  an  inter- 
urban  terminal  is  always  a  fine  location. 

In  most  towns,  or  many  at  least,  there  is  a 
steady  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  retail  section 
to  move  in  one  direction,  as  in  New  York  it 
steadily  edges  along  northward  year  after  year. 
This  condition  should  always  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration and  if  the  tendency  is  a  permanent 
one,  it  is  well  to  get  in  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession or  even  a  little  in  advance  of  it. 

The  question  of  whether  a  man  should  choose 
for  his  business  a  small  town  or  a  large  town  or 
city  is  one  that  calls  for  the  consideration  of 
many  points. 

It  begins  with  the  fitness  of  the  merchant  him- 
self. The  man  who  can  make  a  success  of  a 
small  town  trade  will  often  find  that  he  cannot 
handle  the  city  business  at  all.  A  young  man  can 
adapt  himself  to  changed  conditions  more  easily 
than  an  older  man  and  will  find  it  easier  to  in- 
crease his  pace  to  fit  a  more  lively  section.  The 
man  past  forty  who  has  always  done  business  in 
a  quiet  way  may  well  doubt  the  advisability  of 
trying  to  meet  city  competition.  Better  a 
smaller  success  where  he  will  be  happier. 
34 


Store  Management — Complete 

The  small  town  has  many  advantages  and  not 
the  least  is  the  fact  that  prices  are  apt  to  be 
better  maintained  there  and  help  more  easily  re- 
tained. Also  the  man  who  has  the  ability  to 
grow  great  can  make  himself  the  one  merchant 
of  the  town  in  a  small  place  without  much  trou- 
ble or  expense  when  in  a  city  he  would  find 
himself  outclassed  in  a  race  for  the  actual  top  by 
reason  of  many  deficiencies. 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  you  can  im- 
prove the  location  in  which  your  business"  is  at 
present  situated. 

Perhaps  you  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
street  with  the  best  drawing  stores  in  town  op- 
posite. You  can  make  yourself  almost  as  much 
in  their  section  as  if  they  were  on  your  side  by 
making  it  easy  for  people  to  cross  to  you.  See 
that  you  have  a  broad,  well  made  cross-walk  in 
front  of  your  doorway  (unless  you  are  in  a  sec- 
tion where  there  are  many  trolleys  that  no  one 
will  cross  except  in  case  of  necessity).  Then 
keep  this  walk  clean  clear  to  the  other  side  in 
winter  and  summer.  Don't  stop  with  cleaning 
to  the  middle  of  the  street.  If  the  man  across 
the  street  won't  come  half  way,  you  go  all  the 
way.  Keep  the  gutters  clean  in  winter  so  that 
the  water  won't  back  up  and  obstruct  the  way 
every  time  it  thaws.  If  you  make  this  crossing 
35 


Store  Management — Complete 

obvious,  it  will  be  easy  for  people  to  come  over 
there  and  they  will  do  it,  and  more,  every  woman 
who  wants  to  cross  the  street  anywhere  in  your 
vicinity  will  come  to  that  crossing. 

A  person  crossing  toward  you  is  looking 
squarely  toward  your  store  front  all  the  way 
over. 

It  might  in  some  cases  and  especially  on  busy 
days  pay  you  to  have  a  man  in  uniform  to  help 
ladies  and  children  across.  This  is  advertising 
that  is  of  the  most  practical  sort.  Put  a  sign 
if  you  can,  saying,  "  Cross  here." 

Since  you  want  to  attract  attention  of  people 
who  are  on  the  other  side,  you  particularly  need 
to  have  a  sign  that  will  be  easy  to  read  from  over 
the  way.  It  might  even  be  possible  to  have  one 
that  would  say  "  It's  worth  while  to  cross  over 
here,"  or  "  It  pays  to  shop  on  this  side." 

A  sandwich  man  who  will  walk  up  and  down 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  will  send  some 
people  across  if  his  sign  is  simple  and  says 
merely,  "  Shop  at  Stern's  "  or  "  Look  at  the  win- 
dows across  the  street" 

If  there  is  any  billboard  space  across  from 
you,  it  ought  to  be  used  to  your  advantage  simi- 
larly to  the  sandwich  man's  sign. 

It  may  be  that  there  is  a  vacant  store  or  a 
cigar  store  window  that  you  can  get  directly  op- 

36 


Store  Management — Complete 

posite  you  for  the  purpose,  or  a  little  piece  of 
dead  wall  to  be  rented.  Of  course  in  doing  this 
you  ought  to  make  an  arrangement  that  will 
preclude  the  possibility  of  the  competitor  whose 
business  you  harm,  getting  your  space  away 
from  you  in  a  few  days. 

The  merchant  a  little  off  from  Main  street 
has  a  harder  row  to  hoe  than  the  man  on  the 
wrong  side.  He  must  keep  up  a  deal  of  adver- 
tising in  order  to  get  people  to  make  the  trip 
to  his  store.  He  is  outside  of  their  regular  line 
of  march  and  out  of  their  sight. 

The  man  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  street  or 
the  man  on  the  side  street  should  lose  no  oppor- 
^mity  to  get  other  stores,  especially  in  non-com- 
peting lines  on  his  side  or  on  his  street.  The 
side  street  or  the  off-side  should  have  an  or- 
ganized association  of  the  merchants  doing  busi- 
ness there,  all  of  them  working  together  to  make 
their  section  grow  and  to  get  trade  to  come  their 
way.  There  is  much  in  organization  and  there 
have 'been  cases  where  the  side  street  has  been 
made  into  the  main  business  street  by  organized 
effort. 

If  you  are  around  the  corner,  make  it  easy  for 
people  to  get  around  the  corner.  Make  the  trus- 
tees of  the  village  widen  the  walk  at  the  corner 
and  get  room  for  a  sign  on  the  corner  if  you 
37 


Store  Management — Complete 

can,  pointing  up.  your  way.  Get  the  corner  store 
to  put  in  a  corner  door  so  that  around  the  cor- 
ner won't  seem  so  much  like  off  from  Main 
street. 

If  there  is  any  existing  prejudice  against  your 
present  location  set  to  work  to  eliminate  it.  If 
your  section  of  the  town  is  being  treated  un- 
fairly in  any  way  by  the  politicians  in  office,  get 
matters  set  right.  See  that  you  are  set  back  by 
no  unnecessary  or  unfair  discrimination. 

A  careful  study  of  the  condition  of  the  busi- 
ness of  other  stores  in  any  section  to  which  you 
might  think  of  moving  will  sometimes  reveal  the 
fact  that  the  location  is  not  all  that  might  be  de- 
sired. If  the  stores  there  are  making  money 
and  you  know  it,  it  is  a  good  location,  but  if 
they  are  dragging  and  keeping  up  a  volume  of 
business  by  sheer  force,  then  the  location  is  not 
all  that  it  might  be.  Something  is  wrong. 

In  buying  a  business,  many  things  must  be 
considered  and  considered  carefully.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  see  how  much  stock  a  store  has,  or 
in  what  condition  its  fixtures  may  be.  If  the 
books  are  well  kept  it  is  a  simple  thing  to  see 
how  much  business  the  store  is  doing  —  pro- 
vided you  are  being  dealt  with  honestly,  and 
that  is  where  especial  care  is  needed. 

It  is  pleasant  to  assume  that  everyone  with 

38 


Store  Management — Complete 

whom  we  do  business  is  honest,  but  events  have 
shown  that  there  are  tricky  business  men  and 
sometimes  men  who  were  supposed  to  be  thor- 
oughly honorable  have  proved  to  be  quite  the  re- 
verse. 

Taking  chances  on  a  man's  honesty  when  it  is 
to  his  advantage  to  be  otherwise  is  like  going 
without  fire  insurance.  It  may  turn  out  all 
right,  but  again  it  may  not. 

One  should  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  business  he  is  buying  out  and  ability  to  in- 
vestigate books  and  accounts  in  such  a  way  that 
anything  crooked  about  them  will  be  discovered. 
It  is  buying  a  business  of  the  details  of  which 
a  man  is  ignorant  that  there  is  the  greatest 
chance  of  being  deceived.  The  temptation  to 
deceive  is  greater  where  it  looks  easy  and  safe. 

If  you  want  to  buy  a  store  and  are  not  abso- 
lutely competent  to  tell  whether  the  owner's 
statements  are  honest  or  not,  employ  an  expert 
and  a  good  one.  Take  no  chances.  You  are 
taking  chances  enough  in  starting  in  business  at 
all  without  adding  any  unnecessary  ones. 

Avoid  irritating  the  owner  of  a  business  by 
a  thousand  questions  that  have  no  bearing  at  all 
upon  the  situation.  They  harass  the  seller  and 
they  confuse  the  buyer.  Study  up  in  advance 
what  you  want  to  know.  Make  a  memorandum 
39 


Store  Management — Complete 

of  the  points  you  want  to  cover  and  then  hew  to 
that  line. 

Get  plenty  of  references  and  look  them  up! 
Some  men  who  make  it  a  point  to  ask  all  kinds 
of  references  in  doing  business  never  look  them 
up  at  all.  That  may  be  confidence,  but  it  is  not 
business. 

If  you  are  buying  a  business  that  is  prosperous 
be  sure  that  you  discover  the  real  reason  for  the 
owner  selling.  Many  times  an  excuse  given  that 
the  "  owner  is  going  south/'  "  getting  too  old," 
"  wants  to  get  into  other  business  "  or  "  has  too 
many  outside  cares/'  etc.,  covers  a  shrinking 
trade  or  a  fault  that  is  fatal. 

No  man  is  going  to  sell  without  reason.  Few 
men  will  sell  a  business  that  is  making  them 
money,  as  much  money  as  they  claim  it  is  mak- 
ing. No  man  is  going  to  admit  that  his  business 
is  a  failure  because  that  would  prevent  it  from 
selling.  That  makes  it  necessary  for  the  buyer 
to  take  a  thousand  precautions  to  see  that  he  is 
getting  something  beside  a  gold  brick. 

In  buying  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  look  out 
for  the  business  that  appears  too  prosperous. 
Sometimes  the  seller  in  his  anxiety  to  make  his 
proposition  look  good  will  make  it  look  suspi- 
ciously good.  If  the  store  seems  to  be  selling  more 
goods  and  making  more  money  than  one  would 
40 


Store  Management — Complete 

naturally  think  it  should,  investigate  the  more 
carefully.  See  that  there  are  no  fake  sales  being 
made,  sales  of  goods  carried  through  only  to 
make  the  gross  business  seem  large.  Investigate 
not  only  how  much  goods  are  sold,  but  also 
where  they  are  sold,  to  whom. 

When  there  is  any  disposition  to  hold  back 
a  part  of  the  financial  secrets  of  the  store,  press 
the  investigation  the  more  earnestly.  There 
ought  to  be  nothing  you  cannot  know,  even  down 
to  why,  if  so,  there  is  a  difference  in  the  ap- 
parent showing  of  cash  book  and  bank  book. 

The  other  day  I  saw  a  business  advertised 
for  sale  with  the  statement  that  in  a  village  of 
1,500  with  gross  sales  of  $4,500,  the  rent  was 
$600.  Rent  of  the  store  is  something  to  be 
considered.  There  should  be  no  opportunity 
given  the  seller  to  tie  you  up  with  an  exorbi- 
tant rent.  The  above  instance  looks  as  if  the 
man  who  wanted  to  sell  was  anxious  to  get  a 
rent  that  would  equal  the  net  profits  of  the  whole 
business.  The  store  that  would  bring  a  rent  of 
13  1-3  per  cent,  of  the  gross  sales  made  in  it 
would  be  a  remarkable  investment  for  both  par- 
ties. 

Business  is  business,  we  often  say.  Well,  so 
it  is,  or  should  be,  and  friendship  should  be  laid 
one  side  in  buying  a  business.  When  one's  fu- 
41 


Store  Management — Complete 

ture  business  career  is  at  stake,  it  is  folly  to  take 
anything  for  granted.  Get  right  down  to  brass 
tacks  and  leave  nothing  to  guess  work  or  to  the 
imagination  of  yourself  or  the  other  fellow. 

In  buying  a  stock  which  is  presumably  in  good 
shape  all  these  precautions  should  be  taken  and 
in  buying  a  stock  which  the  owner  is  admittedly 
closing  out  even  more  consideration  should  be 
given  to  the  value  of  the  location  and  of  the 
stock  which  has  undoubtedly  been  allowed  to  go 
below  par.  Unless  you  know  of  some  good 
reason  for  believing  that  you  can  make  a  suc- 
cess where  someone  else  has  failed  don't  buy 
any  dead  business.  Don't  pay  money  for  dead 
stock  anyway. 

In  the  actual  purchasing  of  a  business  there 
should  be  the  utmost  care  to  secure  a  perfect 
legal  title  to  all  the  property  you  think  you  are 
buying.  Don't  pay  a  man  for  his  fixtures,  for 
instance  unless  you  KNOW  that  he  owns 
them  absolutely  instead  of  having  bought  them 
on  the  instalment  plan  and  not  fully  paid  for 
them. 

There  may  be  consigned  goods  on  hand  in  the 
store  too.  Don't  let  any  such  stock  go  into  the 
inventory.  In  case  where  there  is  any  doubt 
about  fixtures  or  stock,  insist  upon  seeing  re- 
ceipted bills  showing  payment  in  full. 
•  42 


Store  Management — Complete 

If  in  your  state  there  is  any  law  regarding 
"  bulk  sales,"  see  that  you  are  protected  in  the 
matter  of  having  to  notify  all  the  seller's  cred- 
itors of  the  transfer  in  order  that  they  may  pro- 
tect themselves  by  security  collateral  for  their 
claims  before  you  buy. 

It  is  wise  too  to  have  written  into  the  agree- 
ment of  sale  the  promise  that  the  seller  is  not 
to  engage  in  the  same  business  again  within  cer- 
tain specified  distance  or  within  a  certain  time. 
Whatever  agreement  is  made  should  be  in  every 
detail  set  down  in  writing,  leaving  nothing  to 
the  imagination.  The  final  bill  of  sale  should 
be  drawn  by  an  attorney. 

There  are  often  instances  where  a  good  loca- 
tion has  proved  a  Jonah  for  a  number  of  mer- 
chants in  succession.  Sometimes  the  right  man 
can  make  the  biggest  sort  of  a  success  in  such  a 
place.  However,  a  good  deal  of  study  of  the 
situation  is  desirable  and  an  ability  to  size  up 
one's  own  business-getting  qualifications  closely. 

Reid,  Yeomans  and  Cubit,  three  young  drug- 
gists, took  up  a  New  York  store  that  had  been 
blackened  by  a  hoodoo  for  years.  The  store 
was  a  little  below  the  level  of  the  sidewalk  and  a 
half  dozen  men  had  failed  there,  but  these  men 
could  see  possibilities  and  they  knew  what  they 
could  do.  They  had  self-confidence  and  they 
43 


Store  Management — Complete 

had  something  to  back  it  up  with.  They  had 
business  getting  ability  in  large  quantity.  They 
made  good. 

In  starting  a  brand  new  store  one  should  con- 
sider many  things  beside  the  business  possibili- 
ties. Personal  health  or  that  of  family  may 
draw  a  little  line  through  otherwise  attractive 
propositions  on  account  of  city  or  other  loca- 
tion. 

If  one  has  a  family,  their  interests  should  be 
considered.  Are  there  good  schools  and  educa- 
tional advantages  where  one  would  need  to  live  ? 
Is  the  cost  of  living  in  one  place  enough  higher 
to  offset  the  extra  chances  for  business  profit? 
Is  competition,  present  and  future,  such  that  the 
buyer's  capital  is  likely  to  prove  sufficient  to 
carry  the  store  through  hot  times?  Is  the  lo- 
cality one  where  a  valuable  personality  can  be 
made  to  count,  or  is  it  one  where  the  merchant's 
individuality  will  go  for  naught  with  most  possi- 
ble customers? 

Everything  else  being  anywhere  near  equal  a 
man  will  do  better  right  in  his  home  town  where 
he  understands  all  the  local  conditions  and  knows 
the  people,  than  he  will  ever  do  in  a  strange 
place. 

His  money  will  go  farther  there  and  his  credit 
will  be  better.  They  say  that  one  should  never 
44 


Store  Management — Complete 

buy  real  estate  in  any  locality  as  an  investment 
until  having  lived  in  that  vicinity  for  at  least 
ten  years.  That  principle  should  hold  good  to  as 
great  an  extent,  or  even  greater,  in  the  case  of 
buying  a  business. 

I  believe  that  the  man  who  wants  to  start  a 
business  for  himself  will  do  better  in  the  smaller 
town  if  he  is  an  average  man  with  an  average, 
or  smaller,  capital.  There  are  big  chances  for 
development  in  the  smaller  places  nowadays. 
Stores  in  villages  of  1,500  doing  a  business  up 
to  $350,000  a  year  in  general  merchandise  are 
not  so  uncommon. 

The  man  who  has  from  $10,000  capital  up,  if  he 
is  young  and  a  hard  worker  and  posted  on  the 
ways  of  a  small  city,  will  find  that  field  the  best, 
perhaps.  The  city  certainly  offers  opportunities 
of  some  sorts  that  the  village  does  not  offer. 

One  thing  that  is  worthy  of  consideration,  es- 
pecially nowadays,  is  the  advisability  of  getting 
into  business  at  a  point  where  the  chain  of 
stores  people  are  not  liable  to  get  under  your 
belt.  These  people  are  not  troubling  the  small 
villages  much.  The  village  stores  carry  so  much 
variety  that  that  kind  of  a  store  is  not  suited  to 
the  syndicate  idea.  Specialty  shops  cannot  be 
supported  well  in  the  village.  In  the  village 
the  personality  of  the  merchant  counts  for  a 
45 


Store  Management — Complete 

good  deal  and  that  is  a  handicap  for  the  trust 
store  idea. 

But  even  in  buying  a  store  in  the  city  one  may 
find  certain  locations  that  are  pretty  sure  always 
to  be  good,  so  prominent  that  no  competing  store 
of  the  syndicate  sort  could  take  all  their  trade 
away. 

Not  everyone  can  have  such  a  location,  but 
everyone  can  try  for  it  and  everyone  can  get 
the  best  location  possible.  Location  is  not 
everything,  but  it  certainly  makes  a  great  dif- 
ference, and  with  some  men  it  undoubtedly 
makes  all  the  difference  between  success  and 
failure.  With  all  of  us  it  requires  consideration 
at  some  point  in  our  career. 


CHAPTER  III 

STORE    ARRANGEMENT 

A  most  important  thing  is  the  arrangement  of 
the  entrance  to  a  store.  It  is  the  entrance  that 
is  seen  by  the  most  people  and  it  is  the  entrance 
that  may  draw  them  inside  if  it  is  attractive  and 
keep  them  out  if  it  is  otherwise. 

The  entrance  must  be  easy.  There  should  be 
no  hard  steps,  no  steps  at  all  if  it  can  be  avoided. 
The  easier  it  is  for  people  to  get  into  the  store, 
the  more  of  them  will  come  in  and  the  oftener 
they  will  come.  There  are  plenty  of  would-be 
customers  who  are  perhaps  lame,  perhaps  in 
poor  health,  perhaps  just  plain  lazy,  to  whom 
the  difference  of  a  step-up  between  your  store 
and  the  next  nearest  competitor  will  make  the 
difference  of  sending  them  to  the  store  easiest 
to  enter. 

It  is  an  every  day  occurrence  to  hear  people 
complain  about  a  step  here  or  a  step  there  in 
their  shopping  or  business.  They  resent  any- 
thing that  makes  them  any  extra  trouble.  This 
is  of  course  more  noticeable  in  the  city  where 
47 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  public  has  more  done  for  it  than  in  the  coun- 
try village  where  inconveniences  of  that  sort  are 
common  enough  and  where  people  have  more 
time  and  probably  more  physical  strength. 

But  under  whatever  circumstances  your  busi- 
ness is  conducted,  there  will  be  more  of  it  if  it  is 
easy  for  people  to  reach  the  interior  of  the  store. 
The  store  with  an  easy  entrance  has  always  a 
point  in  its  favor,  and  many  an  important  pur- 
chase is  made  in  a  store  into  which  the  buyer  is 
drawn  by  the  slightest  additional  weight  of  influ- 
ence. There  is  a  time  in  the  deciding  of  even 
the  important  questions  when  the  weight  of  a 
hair  will  turn  the  balance. 

Beside  the  matter  of  having  to  go  up  or  down 
steps  to  enter  a  store  there  is  the  matter  of  the 
door  itself.  I  know  stores  where  the  actual 
door  constitutes  a  real  barrier  between  the  buyer 
and  the  seller.  It  is  heavy.  It  swings  hard. 
The  catch  sticks  or  the  knob  turns  hard.  Or 
the  doorway  is  so  narrow  that  people  are  always 
getting  in  one  another's  way  in  trying  to  pass 
there.  The  customer  will  overcome  the  objec- 
tion the  first  time,  but  next  time  the  purchase 
will  be  made  next  door,  where  there  is  no  such 
trouble. 

The  entrance  way  should  be  wide  enough  for 
people  to  pass  easily.  The  door  itself  should 


//  your  section  is  being  treated  unfairly  by  the 

politicians  in  office,  get  matters  set  right. — 

See  page  38. 


Store  Management — Complete 

be  as  light  as  a  plate  glass  door  may  be.  It 
should  have  ball  bearing  hinges  and  should 
swing  at  a  touch.  If  it  has  a  knob,  the  knob 
ought  to  turn  easily  and  it  should  on  no  account 
be  near  enough  to  the  edge  of  the  door  so  that 
there  is  any  chance  of  the  person  entering  injur- 
ing hand  or  fingers  or  tearing  a  glove  on  the 
door  casing.  It  is  often  better  to  have  two  nar- 
row doors  hung  in  the  doorway  instead  of  one 
heavy  large  door.  A  wide,  heavy  door  is  often 
hard  for  a  woman  to  handle. 

And  then  in  the  summer  there  is  the  screen 
door.  A  good  many  merchants  thoughtlessly 
economize  on  their  screen  doors.  They  make 
them  an  infernal  nuisance.  They  squeak  or 
stick  or  open  only  one  way,  or  jam  your  fingers 
in  getting  through  them.  All  these  objections 
should  be  overruled. 

Make  it  easy  to  get  through  the  door  into  the 
store  or  you  are  putting  a  stumbling  block  in 
your  customers'  way. 

The  entrance  way  is  usually  made  of  the  same 
depth  as  the  windows.  This  need  not  neces- 
sarily be  so.  If  for  any  reason  it  is  desirable 
to  have  a  doorway  not  as  deep  as  the  window 
or  deeper,  make  it  so. 

The  windows  ought  to  be  made  of  a  depth 
that  is  suited  to  your  particular  line  of  goods. 
49 


Store  Management — Complete 

In  renting  a  new  store  you  do  not  have  to  ac- 
commodate yourself  to  the  windows.  Have 
them  made  to  suit  you  before  you  move  in.  A 
window  can  be  altered  in  depth  without  much 
trouble  and  the  floor  of  it  can  even  be  raised  by 
building  a  false  floor  and  putting  a  sign  on  the 
glass  up  to  this  new  floor,  using  a  decalcomania 
or  painted  sign  on  the  inside  or  a  wooden  or 
metal  sign  on  the  outside. 

There  is  too  much  making  the  business  fit  the 
store  instead  of  making  the  store  fit  the  busi- 
ness. 

Windows  are  for  the  display  of  goods.  Very 
true.  But  don't  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  win- 
dows are  also  to  let  in  light.  If  the  window  is 
to  be  boxed  in,  using  any  kind  of  opaque  back- 
ing, there  should  be  room  above  to  let  in  light, 
but  it  is  better  to  box  the  window  in  with  glass, 
using  ground  glass  or  painted  glass  backing. 
This  answers  every  purpose  and  lets  light 
through.  There  is  no  light  that  is  quite  as  good 
in  the  honest  store  as  daylight.  I  believe  in  a 
store  being  more  than  light  enough  either  day  or 
night.  It  should  be  bright,  conspicuously  bright 
all  day  and  brilliant  at  night. 

Some  recent  stores  have  combined  very  suc- 
cessfully the  lighting  and  the  sign  value  of  a 
window  by  using  clear  across  the  top  of  the  win- 
So 


Store  Management — Complete 

dow  in  front  of  the  store  luxfer  sheet  prism 
glass  leaded  and  set  in  pane  form  with  lettering 
set  in  it  in  opalescent  glass.  The  result  is  a 
high  class,  artistic  sign  and  more  light. 

The  use  of  prismatic  glass  in  the  upper  parts 
of  the  windows  in  front  will  help  illuminate  even 
the  long,  deep  store,  and  if  there  is  a  chance  for 
a  side  or  rear  window  to  help  in  the  lighting, 
let  not  that  chance  go  unused. 

And  while  we  are  talking  about  lighting  I  will 
refer  to  the  artificial  lighting  problem. 

Many  plans  are  followed  in  many  places. 
What  is  best  in  one  town  is  impossible  in  an- 
other. The  best  kind  to  use  is  the  kind  that 
will  give  you  the  most  light  for  the  least  money. 

The  cost  of  lighting  is  one  of  the  largest  fixed 
charges  against  the  business.  Good  lighting 
must  cost  a  good  deal  of  money,  but  it  often 
costs  more  money  than  is  necessary. 

The  average  merchant  knows  mighty  little 
about  the  technical  principles  of  lighting  a  store. 
He  sees  a  store  that  looks  bright  and  he  adopts 
the  plan  he  saw  there  with  the  result  that,  inas- 
much as  the  other  store  had  a  different  stock 
and  arrangement,  his  lights  cost  him  a  third 
more  than  they  need  to  cost. 

An  -  expert  ought  to  be  consulted  wherever 
possible  as  to  the  best  way  to  light  the  store  the 
51 


Store  Management — Complete 

most  for  the  least  money.  You  may  be  satis- 
fied with  your  light  and  with  the  cost,  neverthe- 
less I  would  advise  a  careful  study  of  the  situa- 
tion and  a  consultation  with  any  lighting  expert 
who  may  come  your  way.  You  perhaps  can 
save  money  that  you  had  not  thought  it  possible 
to  save. 

There  are  some  instances  where  the  advice  of 
the  right  man  has  cut  the  lighting  expense  in  two 
and  given  as  satisfactory  results  as  before.  Un- 
less you  yourself  know  all  about  the  light  prop- 
osition, it  is  safe  to  say  that  you  can  at  least 
have  a  third  more  light  for  the  money  you  are 
paying  each  year. 

Where  electricity  costs  15  cents  per  kilowatt 
hour  that  makes  a  pretty  costly  light  and  perhaps 
you  can  get  more  satisfaction  out  of  a  private 
gasoline  gas  plant,  though  this  latter  is  always 
making  work  for  you. 

Electricity,  where  one  can  afford  enough  of 
it,  is  the  best  and  the  most  convenient  light  of 
course.  Tungsten  lamps  produce  the  most  light 
for  the  current  consumed  and  cost  on  a  meter 
about  half  as  much  as  the  old  style  lamps.  Some 
form  of  powerful  arc  is  good  to  make  the  big 
store  really  brilliant  and  the  newest  of  these 
lamps  run  without  perceptible  noise  and  require 
very  little  care. 

52 


Store  Management — Complete 

The  units  of  light  used  ought  to  be  small 
enough  so  that  enough  points  of  illumination 
can  be  installed  to  make  the  illumination  general 
instead  of  excessively  bright  around  the  lights 
and  dull  in  the  parts  more  distant  from  them. 
An  even  illumination  is  most  desirable  rather 
than  one  that  is  bright  in  spots. 

In  a  high  room  the  lights  will  serve  best  (if 
arcs)  at  a  height  of  about  12  feet.  Ground 
glass  globes  should  be  used  on  these  >as  they 
dazzle  the  eye  least  and  diffuse  the  light  best. 
At  a  height  of  twelve  feet  tne  sources  of  light 
ought  as  a  general  thing  to  be  at  least  200  c.  p. 
for  every  400  square  feet  —  and  more  light  will 
be  better.  It  can  hardly  be  possible  to  get  too 
much  light,  except  as  the  cost  is  considered. 

Inasmuch  as  the  principle  of  display  of  goods 
is  so  important  and  the  more  goods  there  are 
displayed,  the  more  will  be  sold,  then  there 
should  be  no  dark  corners  in  the  store  at  any 
time,  night  or  day.  If  there  are  places  that 
the  daylight  cannot  be  made  to  brighten  up, 
then  artificial  light  ought  to  be  used  there  all 
day.  If  it  is  worth  while  to  have  the  store 
all  lighted  part  of  the  time,  it  is  worth  while  to 
have  it  all  lighted  all  of  the  time. 

The  dark  corners  will  not  sell  goods  and  "it 
will  seem  self-evident  to  visitors  that  the  goods 
S3 


Store  Management — Complete 

that  are  tucked  away  in  such  places  cannot  be  very 
salable  or  important  or  they  would  be  given 
a  fair  show. 

Of  course  the  direct  sunlight  that  might  do 
damage  cannot  be  admitted  to  the  store  and 
this  is  easily  controlled  with  awnings.  And 
let  me  say  right  here  that  awnings  that  hang 
so  low  as  to  be  a  nuisance  to  the  passers  by 
are  a  detriment  to  the  store.  If  possible,  have 
them  high  enough  to  allow  a  woman  to  pass 
underneath  without  hitting  her  parasol  or  um- 
brella. Keep  them  up  out  of  the  way  in  wet 
weather  so  that  they  will  not  drip  on  pedestrians 
and  spoil  their  tempers.  Also  it  pays  to  keep 
awnings  dry  because  it  prolongs  their  life  a 
hundred  per  cent.  If  you  must  keep  the  awn- 
ing out  permanently,  see  that  it  is  very  high 
and  goes  clear  across  the  sidewalk  and  drips 
only  into  the  gutter. 

The  heating  of  the  store  is  worth  careful 
consideration.  The  store  that  is  never  com- 
fortable, winter  or  summer,  does  not  invite  cus- 
tomers to  linger  very  long  over  their  purchases. 
They  get  just  what  they  came  for,  nothing  else, 
and  make  their  escape.  The  ice  box  or  the 
turkish  bath  sort  of  store  loses  trade  steadily. 

In  winter  use  enough  heat  to  keep  the  tem- 
perature at  healthy  height  for  employes  and 
54 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  visiting  public  will  be  warm  enough.  This 
means  about  65°.  A  store  too  warm  in  winter 
is  usually  too  close  and  gives  the  employes  a 
drowsy  feeling  and  energy  disappears.  Just 
enough  heat  and  plenty  of  fresh  air  make  the 
selling  forces  feel  more  like  work  and  that 
means  more  sales  and  better  satisfied  customers. 

There  must  be  means  of  ventilation  in  order 
to  produce  such  results.  This  is  true  both  win- 
ter and  summer.  Simply  stirring  the  air  up 
with  an  electric  fan  will  not  make  it  fresh  or 
inject  any  oxygen  into  it.  A  fan  may  help  the 
circulation  if  there  is  a  chance  for  outside  air  to 
get  in,  otherwise  not.  In  the  summer  when 
the  doors  are  open,  fans  do  help  the  circulation 
of  air  very  much. 

The  well  shaded  store  is  the  cooler  store  in 
summer  and  there  ought  if  possible  to  be  open 
windows  on  the  north  side  of  the  room.  At 
all  events  have  a  store  open  on  two  sides  to 
allow  a  draught  to  pass  through. 

Many  of  these  things,  which  are  regarded  by 
the  merchant  as  matters  of  passing  interest  only, 
and  bearing  upon  cash  results  only  casually,  are 
really  far-reaching  in  their  consequences.  Every 
advantage  a  store  can  have  over  rivals,  counts 
and  is  important,  even  when  it  concerns  only 
the  keeping  of  the  store  comfortable. 
55 


Store  Management — Complete 

There  are  two  ways  of  keeping  a  store  painted 
up  inside.  One  is  to  have  a  general  upheaval 
every  so  often  and  displace  everything  in  the 
store,  stop  business  practically  and  inconven- 
ience the  public  and  yourself  and  make  a  good 
sized  loss  to  add  to  the  cost  of  the  actual  paint- 
ing. The  other  way  is  to  keep  touching  up 
the  paint  a  little  here  and  there  as  it  needs  it 
to  keep  it  bright,  having  the  work  done  Satur- 
day nights,  holidays  or  odd  times  and  never 
stopping  business  or  making  any  special  differ- 
ence in  the  service  of  the  store  by  the  means. 

You  can  take  your  choice  of  the  two  ways,  but 
anyway  keep  the  paint  fresh.  Paint  itself  is  not 
expensive  and  in  most  stores  there  is  some  young- 
ster who  rather  likes  to  put  it  on  and  is  willing 
to  occupy  himself  in  that  way  now  and  again. 

Don't  have  your  woodwork  dark,  making  a 
general  background  that  will  eat  up  25  per  cent, 
of  the  light  produced.  Use  light  colored  paint  in 
two  harmonizing  shades,  and  if  you  would  have 
the  painting  kept  fresh  with  the  least  trouble 
and  expense,  avoid  fancy  decorating  that  re- 
quires expert  workmanship  and  much  time  in 
doing  it  over.  White  and  light  green  are  fa- 
vorites in  store  interior  decorating. 

Some  neutral  color  along  the  baseboards 
where  there  is  the  most  dirt  will  wear  best 

56 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  show  toe  marks  least.  Light  oak  is  good 
to  use  where  it  encounters  a  good  deal  of  dirt. 
A  painted  wall  or  ceiling  is  far  easier  to  care 
for  than  a  papered  one.  The  steel  ceiling  is 
much  the  best.  Papering  is  a  mussy  job  and 
new  paper  lasts  no  longer,  not  as  long  in  fact, 
as  paint. 

The  fresh  looking  store  attracts  the  women 
for  there  is  inherent  in  every  feminine  breast 
a  love  for  bright  cleanliness  of  the  sort  that 
forces  itself  upon  one's  attention. 

The  floor  of  a  store  requires  a  good  deal  of 
attention.  It  should  be  of  something  hard. 
Maple  makes  a  good  hardwood  floor.  Tile  is 
suitable  and  if  thick  and  good  quality  is  durable. 
The  tiling  that  is  frequently  getting  broken  is 
not  desirable.  There  is  no  way  of  cleaning  a 
floor  that  is  quite  as  good  as  mopping  it,  and 
a  maple  flooring  can  be  mopped  almost  as  easily 
as  it  can  be  swept  and  if  the  store  is  warm, 
particularly  if  warmed  from  below,  the  floor 
will  dry  quickly. 

Sweeping  takes  off  the  loose  dirt  and  if  done 
with  a  sweeping  powder  does  not  make  a  dust, 
but  it  will  not  brighten  the  floor  up  and  make 
it  look  fresh.  Snow,  when  obtainable,  is  one 
of  the  best  of  all  sweeping  powders.  A  pile 
of  clean  snow  swept  across  the  floor  keeps  down 
57 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  dust  and  does  not  make  the  floor  perceptibly 
wet. 

Oiling  a  floor  has  some  advantages  but  as  it 
results  in  soiling  the  skirts  of  every  woman 
who  comes  in  with  a  gown  that  touches  the 
floor,  it  keeps  the  lady  customers  out  many 
times.  Also  it  keeps  the  shoes  of  the  employes 
so  oiled  that  they  ruin  the  home  carpets,  under 
the  dining  table,  for  instance. 

The  location  of  the  counters  and  show  .cases 
in  a  store  is  of  the  highest  importance.  Where 
to  put  the  different  kinds  of  goods  is  a  little 
problem  of  its  own. 

In  no  two  stores  can  the  rule  be  successfully 
exactly  the  same.  There  should  be  at  the  front 
of  the  store  where  they  will  be  most  easily 
reached  many  of  the  goods  that  are  wanted  by 
the  largest  number  of  customers,  especially  if 
they  are  goods  that  people  are  likely  to  drop 
in  and  buy  without  preliminaries. 

In  a  store  that  is  at  all  general  in  character  a 
good  business  may  be  developed  on  specialties 
bought  in  that  way  if  they  are  so  placed  that 
they  can  be  purchased  without  any  red  tape  or 
formality.  Men  particularly  decline  to  be  both- 
ered with  any  unnecessary  delays  and  want  to 
be  served  quickly  and  accurately.  They  will 
step  in  and  buy  things  obtainable  in  the  front 

58 


Store  Management — Complete 

even  of  a  big  store  when  they  would  never 
bother  to  go  to  the  rear  or  to  another  floor. 

The  more  salable  the  goods  in  the  front  of 
the  store  and  the  better  they  are  displayed,  the 
more  customers  they  will  bring  in  and  the  more 
of  them  will  be  sold  to  the  people  who  are  coming 
in  anyway. 

Of  course  not  all  attractive  goods  should  be 
shown  right  in  the  front  of  the  store  or  few 
people  would  find  their  way  to  the  other  coun- 
ters. There  should  be  attractive  displays  of 
attractive  goods  throughout  the  whole  store  and 
they  should  be  so  placed  and  so  carded  as  to 
lead  the  customer  to  make  the  rounds. 

It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  the  average 
store  has  but  one  aisle  and  two  rows  of  show 
cases,  one  down  each  side,  with  perhaps  another 
across  at  the  rear.  In  a  store  of  this  size,  there 
is  little  chance  to  alter  this  plan  to  any  ad- 
vantage. It  offers  the  most  display  with  the 
greatest  room  for  the  customers'  comfort  of 
any  plan.  It  should  always  be  remembered  in 
planning  that  the  comfort  of  the  customer  is  of 
importance  scarcely  second  to  that  of  display. 
The  uncomfortable  customer  buys  less  and  hates 
to  come  again. 

When  there  is  more  than  one  aisle  through  the 
store,  there  is  no  better  arrangement  than  pla- 
59 


Store  Management — Complete 

cing  the  show  cases  in  parallel  aisles,  subject 
to  differences  in  formation  due  to  possible  varia- 
tions of  the  shape  of  the  store  from  the  rec- 
tangular. 

The  formation  of  the  inside  arrangement  of 
the  store  should  be  so  shaped  as  to  make  it  very 
simple  and  natural  for  the  customer  to  go 
farther  into  the  store  when  once  inside  the 
door.  The  object  of  the  store's  advertising  has 
not  been  accomplished  with  getting  the  visitor 
inside  the  doors.  There  must  be  a  purchase, 
many  purchases  before  the  advertising  bill  can 
be  paid. 

The  goods  that  greet  a  customer's  eye  upon 
entering  ought  to  be  preferably  new  and  at- 
tractive goods,  goods  that  will  interest  the  per- 
son who  is  simply  there  with  a  friend  or  simply 
waiting  for  someone.  That  is  not  the  place  for 
goods  that  take  time  in  the  selling.  It  is  not 
the  place  for  articles  that  require  abundant  sales- 
manship and  a  good  deal  of  explanation.  The 
high  priced  goods  that  are  bought  with  care 
and  deliberation  ought  to  be  located  where  there 
is  room  and  where  the  customer  may  sit  down 
and  be  leisurely  in  the  purchase.  This  will 
mean  more  sales  of  better  goods  and  less  snap 
buying. 

There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  hurry  people 
60 


Store  Management — Complete 

in  the  purchase  of  expensive  goods.  It  will 
simply  result  in  their  going  home  to  think  the 
matter  over  where  they  can  be  quiet  —  and 
you  know  what  it  means  to  let  a  customer  go 
out  when  his  mind  has  once  been  nearly  made 
up  to  buy.  He  may  come  back  to-morrow  and 
he  may  not.  Probably  he  will  look  around  a 
little  elsewhere  anyway. 

To-morrow  never  comes. 

If  you  have  an  upstairs  or  a  downstairs  to 
your  store,  see  that  the  stairs  or  steps  are  made 
easy.  There  is  as  much  difference  in  steps  as 
there  is  between  steps  and  no  steps.  Talk  over 
with  a  carpenter  the  subject  of  treads  and  risers 
until  you  know  that  you  can  plan  the  easiest 
steps  for  a  woman  to  go  up  and  down.  Try 
steps  with  7^  and  with  8  inch  risers,  etc., 
wherever  you  find  them  and  learn  by  practical 
experiment. 

Stairs  of  any  sort  ought  to  be  plenty  wide 
enough  for  people  to  pass  in  going  up  or  down. 
The  wider,  the  better. 

Have  no  crude  fixtures  and  leave  no  packing 
cases  anywhere  with  a  nail  or  a  sliver  to  tear 
the  clothing.  Keep  everything  strictly  ship- 
shape at  all  times. 

In  the  way  of  special  furniture  for  your  line 
of  business,  get  the  things  that  will  help  sell 
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Store  Management — Complete 

the  goods.  It  is  all  right  to  leave  the  unnec- 
essary things  until  there  is  money  to  spare,  but 
the  fixtures  that  help  sell  goods  pay  for  them- 
selves in  short  order.  The  day  has  passed  when 
a  man  can  make  a  success  of  a  business  without 
floor  show  cases  and  modern  equipment  both 
in  the  windows  and  throughout  the  store. 

The  principle  of  keeping  every  bit  of  stock 
under  glass  is  all  right  in  its  way.  It  certainly 
does  keep  the  goods  clean  and  a  row  of  cases 
with  nothing  on  top  of  the  shiny  plate  glass 
looks  very  attractive,  but  this  way  eliminates  a 
lot  of  sales  made  to  people  who  like  to  prowl 
around  and  pick  things  up  and  look  them  over. 
There  are  of  course  some  goods  that  cannot 
be  left  where  they  will  be  handled  promiscu- 
ously but  there  is  other  stock  that  is  not  in- 
jured by  open  display.  Show  the  goods  in  the 
ways  that  make  them  sell.  Take  the  chance  of 
an  occasional  article  being  soiled,  spoiled  or 
stolen.  It  will  pay. 

In  a  bargain  department,  for  instance,  the 
sales  would  not  pay  the  expenses  if  the  goods 
were  not  left  out  where  people  could  handle 
them.  And  bargain  departments  certainly  are 
profitable,  even  when  they  amount  to  nothing 
more  than  a  small  counter  of  special  priced 
goods. 

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Store  Management — Complete 

The  5,  10  and  25  cent  goods  and  combina- 
tions of  goods  have  developed  wonderful  mer- 
chandising possibilities  and  the  store  that  does 
not  try  for  some  trade  along  that  line  is  losing 
good  opportunities.  If  you  have  not  been  run- 
ning such  a  department  or  counter,  try  it.  Set 
off  a  bit  of  the  store  for  a  single  counter,  or 
if  you  want  to  go  in  farther  and  can  do  so, 
annex  a  little  extra  space  and  make  a  bargain 
department. 

The  fixtures  in  such  a  department  are  mainly 
open,  double  or  triple  decked  tables  filled  with 
goods  every  article  priced  with  its  card  or  tag 
and  nothing  left  to  the  customer's  imagination. 
These  tables  ought  to  have  a  little  ridge  around 
them  to  lessen  the  chance  of  goods  being 
knocked  off. 

All  irregularities  in  the  store's  shape  should 
be  made  to  help  in  the  display  of  goods.  Posts, 
angles  of  the  wall,  corners  —  all  ought  to  have 
their  special  display  facilities  which  are  some- 
times by  very  reason  of  their  unexpected  na- 
ture more  valuable  than  regularity  would  be. 

In  the  way  of  shelving  back  of  the  counters, 
don't  try  to  use  it  too  high  to  be  reached. 
Goods  that  are  to  be  reached  from  the  floor 
ought  not  to  be  stored  higher  than  they  can  be 
reached  without  a  step-ladder  or  without  up- 

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Store  Management — Complete 

setting  them  in  taking  them  down.  If  you  have 
a  space  for  extra  high  shelving,  it  is  all  right 
to  use  it,  making  an  auxiliary  place  of  it  and 
having  a  sliding  ladder  for  getting  to  it,  but 
don't  make  the  mistake  of  having  goods  stored 
where  no  one  can  get  to  them  without  climbing 
up  on  the  furniture  and  spoiling  it. 

The  space  up  high  back  of  the  counters  can 
be  used  for  storing  extra  stock  if  you  need  the 
room.  It  can  be  used  for  advertising  purposes, 
or  it  can  be  used  with  the  ladder.  If  it  is  left 
empty,  the  cobwebs  must  be  kept  down  and  there 
can  be  palms  placed  there  to  add  to  the  appear- 
ance of  the  store. 

There  is  the  advantage  in  using  the  upper 
space  for  storing  goods  that  it  makes  the  store 
look  as  if  it  had  a  larger  stock.  A  full  looking 
store  is  a  more  attractive  place  to  buy  than  one 
in  which  the  shelves  look  as  if  the  stock  had 
to  be  spread  out  in  single  layers  in  order  to 
make  it  go  around.  A  full  stock  looks  pros- 
perous while  a  one-layer  stock  looks  as  if  busi- 
ness were  poor  and  capital  limited.  The  public 
is  quick  to  note  such  things  and  to  be  influenced 
by  them. 

A  good  sized  store  is  an  advantage  but  if  it 
is  larger  than  need  be  it  is  the  reverse.  The 
stock  gets  scattered  around  until  it  looks  lone- 
64 


A  most  important  thing  is  the  arrangement  of  the 
entrance  to  a  store. — See  page  47. 


Store  Management — Complete 

some  and  the  more  space  the  stock  covers  the 
more  work  is  necessary  in  caring  for  it 
and  in  selling  it.  The  well  arranged  stock 
which  is  compactly  placed  can  be  handled  by 
a  ten  per  cent,  and  perhaps  twenty  per  cent, 
smaller  force  of  clerks.  A  lot  of  space  in  which 
the  customers  can  walk  around  is  very  nice  but 
it  is  also  very  unnecessary.  Give  the  customers 
room  enough  to  move  around  comfortably  and 
use  the  rest  of  your  space  for  displaying  stock. 
It  may  be  that  you  can  concentrate  your  stock 
enough  to  rent  ten  or  fifteen  feet  off  from  the 
rear  of  the  store.  The  arrangement  of  the  goods 
should  of  course  be  systematic  and  there  ought 
not  to  be  any  trouble  in  finding  what  you  want. 
On  this  account  the  plan  of  arrangement  ought 
to  be  studied  with  care. 

There  is  a  decided  knack  in  knowing  how  to 
place  the  stock  to  best  advantage.  If  you  haven't 
this  knack,  try  to  cultivate  it  by  studying 
your  own  and  other  merchants'  stock  arrange- 
ments 

When  you  want  to  make  more  room  the  place 
to  begin  is  not  in  the  front  of  the  store  but  in 
the  store-house  or  cellar  or  wherever  extra 
stock  is  placed.  There  is  almost  always  room 
to  shove  things  up  together  there,  or  to  eliminate 
some  old  packing  cases,  etc.  A  simple  house- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

cleaning  will  usually  go  a  good  ways  toward 
giving  you  the  needed  space. 

In  the  store-room,  wherever  you  keep  extra 
stock  be  careful  to  make  the  arrangement  such 
that  you  can  tell  what  you  have  there  at  any 
time  without  tearing  the  whole  stock  apart  to 
find  out.  For  this  purpose  narrow  shelving, 
just  wide  enough  for  the  stock  it  is  to  hold 
is  far  better  than  wide  shelving.  On  the  wide 
(deep)  shelves  there  is  always  the  chance  of 
the  stock  getting  shoved  in  behind  the  rest  and 
lost  sight  of  until  more  is  ordered  and  that  al- 
ready paid  for  becomes  dead. 

This  same  rule  holds  good  regarding  stock 
all  through  the  store.  The  shelving  that  is 
deeper  than  necessary  merely  makes  a  place  to 
catch  dirt,  and  wastes  valuable  room.  Careful 
planning  of  the  store  and  stock  will  enable  you 
to  have  your  shelves  fit  your  stock  closely,  each 
kind  of  goods  having  a  place  where  the  shelving 
is  adapted  especially  for  it. 

In  a  store  that  carries  a  good  many  light, 
bulky  articles  like  baskets,  tinware  or  wooden- 
ware,  much  of  this  may  be  shown  on  racks  that 
hang  above  the  counters,  high  up  out  of  the  way. 
Many  things  in  the  way  of  dry  goods  can  be 
shown  in  this  way,  and  nowadays  there  are 
special  racks  for  all  sorts  of  goods,  from  a  car- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

pet  to  a  briar  pipe.  Needless  to  say  these  racks 
show  the  goods  to  so  much  better  advantage 
that  they  soon  see  enough  extra  to  pay  their 
cost.  All  kinds  of  modern  display  apparatus 
counts  for  the  man  who  uses  it  intelligently. 

If  you  are  running  the  kind  of  a  store  that 
caters  only  to  the  so  called  best  class  of  trade, 
you  may  want  to  keep  your  store  looking  like 
a  parlor  all  the  time  and  in  that  case  you  will 
not  want  to  store  any  extra  stock  in  sight.  It 
should  all  go  to  the  store-room,  but  if  you  run 
a  busy  store,  one  that  looks  like  "  something 
doing  "  every  minute,  then  you  can  store  your 
goods  where  they  will  show  and  help  make  the 
store  look  full.  The  "  best  class  of  trade  "  store 
is  all  right  in  its  way  but  it  never  weighs  much 
unless  maybe  in  a  large  city. 

In  arranging  a  stock  that  is  all  mixed,  care 
should  be  used  to  see  that  any  line  of  goods 
that  makes  dirt  or  dust  in  the  handling  is  not 
next  to  the  other  stock  that  will  be  affected 
by  that  dust.  All  the  unpacking  and  other  dirty 
work  of  the  store  too  ought  to  be  done  where 
it  will  not  make  the  store  look  dingy.  Better 
carry  goods  in  by  the  armful  from  the  outside 
after  unpacking  than  unpack,  making  a  litter 
in  the  selling  part  of  the  store. 

If    the    goods     stored    in    your    store-room, 


Store  Management — Complete 

whether  it  be  in  the  cellar,  warehouse  or  attic, 
are  small  articles  they  should  be  arranged  in 
sections  with  a  chart  or  simple  catalog  of  the 
sections  and  their  contents  placed  in  a  conven- 
ient place,  tacked  to  the  door  perhaps.  There 
should  be  the  utmost  care  used  to  see  that  sur- 
plus stock  of  no  item  is  located  in  more  than 
one  place  as  such  an  error  is  certain  to  result 
in  re-ordering  while  there  is  yet  plenty  of  stock 
on  hand. 

As  far  as  possible  stored  goods  ought  to  be 
arranged  in  orderly  manner  on  shelves  or  in 
packing  cases  with  labels  in  plain  sight  and  the 
same  goods  ought  always  to  be  stored  in  the 
same  location  to  avoid  confusion. 

If  you  have  no  stated  store-room  and  have 
to  use  odd  places  around  the  store,  then  you 
certainly  need  a  catalog  showing  where  each 
kind  of  surplus  stock  is  stored.  A  list  of  this 
stock  may  be  superfluous  to  the  one  man  at  the 
head  of  the  store  —  it  MAY  be  —  but  it  will 
not  be  so  to  the  rest  of  the  force,  for  no  em- 
ployee in  a  store  short  of  the  manager  can  be 
expected  to  keep  the  entire  stock  in  his  mind. 

If  you  think  you  are  short  of  store-room  take 

a  look  around  with  a  new  point  of  view.     Isn't 

there   room   for  a   shelf   over  that  door,   or  in 

the  cellarway,  or  up  there  in  the  corner  of  the 

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Store  Management — Complete 

chimney?  Some  of  these  places  are  dark  cor- 
ners, but  then  some  goods  are  better  stored  in 
the  dark,  and  anyway  the  greatest  objection  to 
the  dark  corners  is  that  they  are  likely  to  be 
dirty  and  there  is  really  no  reason  why  they 
should  be  so.  Clean  them  out  and  see  that  the 
goods  stored  there  are  listed  on  your  stock  card 
so  that  they  will  not  be  forgotten.  That  is  all 
that  is  necessary  to  make  the  dark  corners  use- 
ful. 

Many  convenient  cupboards  for  use  in  store- 
room can  be  made  from  old  packing  cases  by 
sawing  them,  into  shallow  boxes  and  putting 
shelves  in  them  and  doors  on.  The  doors  on 
the  front  may  be  made  of  shallower  boxes  the 
same  size  and  these  may  also  have  shelving  in 
them  and  when  they  swing  shut,  the  whole  so 
protected  from  dust.  When  the  store-room 
for  some  of  the  surplus  stock  is  in  the  same 
place  with  the  heating  apparatus,  the  goods 
must  be  protected  from  the  dust,  and  of  course 
much  stock  will  be  damaged  by  the  adjacent 
heat. 

It  is  very  inconvenient  to  have  surplus  stock 
stored  far  enough  away  so  that  it  cannot  be 
reached  easily  as  wanted.  In  spite  of  the  ut- 
most care  there  will  come  plenty  of  times  when 
customers  will  want  more  of  something  than 

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Store  Management — Complete 

is  in  the  store  proper.  If  the  warehouse  is 
not  right  in  connection  with  the  store,  this  often 
means  a  loss  of  sales.  All  of  the  stock  that 
you  have  your  money  invested  in  ought  to  be 
available  for  sale  right  now  if  it  is  wanted. 
You  cannot  afford  to  have  it  otherwise. 

There  is  space  in  every  store  that  is  not  used. 
This  ought  to  contain  surplus  stock  when  it  is 
in  a  suitable  location.  For  instance,  even  under 
the  floor  show  cases  there  is  room  in  the  base 
for  drawers  that  can  hold  a  good  deal  of  stock 
that  would  be  right  where  one  could  reach  it 
at  a  moment's  notice.  In  such  space  extra  stock 
like  that  in  the  cases  may  be  stored  and  then  sold 
from  the  drawer  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  case  itself. 

I  have  known  of  a  case  where  the  cellar  of 
a  store  was  fitted  up  as  the  exact  counterpart 
in  arrangement  of  the  store  above.  Extra  stock 
was  located  in  the  cellar  in  just  the  position 
the  selling  stock  was  to  be  found  upstairs.  This 
plan  was  a  great  convenience  especially  for  new 
help  but  it  is  not  practical  in  many  stores. 

In  fixing  up  a  store  it  is  well  to  pay  attention 
to  the  class  of  trade  expected  in  it.  For  in- 
stance, it  is  possible  in  a  farming  community 
to  make  a  store  so  elaborate  that  it  will  drive 
away  the  trade  it  is  intended  to  attract.  The 
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Store  Management — Complete 

country  people  will  not  feel  at  home  in  a  store 
that  is  made  as  elaborate  as  possible.  To  display 
too  much  tile,  plate  glass,  mirrors,  etc.,  is  to  in- 
vest unnecessary  capital  with  the  effect  of  redu- 
cing instead  of  producing  business.  The  store 
should  be  made  to  fit  the  trade  it  wants. 

Conveniences  also  should  be  made  for  the 
class  of  customers  wanted.  Farmers  often  come 
in  wagons  and  stop  in  front  and  make  their 
purchases  without  getting  out.  They  ought  to 
have  room  to  stop  and  there  ought  to  be  some- 
one on  duty  to  see  that  the  man  who  drives  up 
and  stops  is  not  kept  waiting  too  long  —  or  at 
all  for  that  matter. 

It  pays  to  have  convenient  resting  places  in 
the  store  for  the  farmers'  wives  and  allow  them 
to  leave  bundles  there.  They  will  then  get  into 
the  habit  of  patronizing  the  store  that  treats 
them  with  the  most  consideration. 

All  classes  of  people  get  into  this  habit.  The 
treatment  of  customers  is  just  as  important  as 
the  goods  you  give  them.  They  must  be  made 
comfortable  while  in  your  store  and  they  must 
be  made  to  feel  that  you  have  a  personal  interest 
in  them,  further  than  the  mere  dollars  and  cents 
value  they  have  to  you. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    BUYING   END 

Many  extravagant  statements  have  been  made 
regarding  the  importance  of  careful  buying.  It 
has  been  said  that  more  money  is  to  be  made  in 
the  buying  end  than  in  the  selling  end  of  a  re- 
tail business.  It  has  been  said  that  "  Well 
bought  is  half  sold/* 

Whatever  has  been  said  is  in  a  large  measure 
true,  not  literally  true  perhaps  but  approxi- 
mately true. 

Good  buying  shortens  very  appreciably  the 
road  to  success. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  important  things 
to  be  considered  in  buying  is  whether  you  need 
the  goods  or  not.  It  is  easier  to  over-buy,  easier 
to  keep  the  stock  up  than  it  is  to  keep  it  down. 
No  matter  how  closely  the  goods  are  bought 
or  how  carefully  they  are  selected,  if  they  are 
not  needed,  they  are  adding  to  the  expense  of 
store  maintenance  and  helping  to  produce  an  ac- 
cumulation of  what  is  sure  'to  be  dead  stock. 

Modern  merchandising  methods  recognize  the 
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Store  Management — Complete 

importance,  the  absolute  necessity  of  keeping 
the  stock  down  to  the  lowest  possible  invest- 
ment and  turning  it  over  as  many  times  per 
annum  as  it  can  be  turned. 

The  man  who  attempts  to  keep  his  stock  of 
suitable  dimensions  by  the  guess  method  is  all 
wrong,  no  matter  how  small  a  store  he  runs. 

If  your  stock  consists  of  but  one  single  item, 
carried  in  but  one  single  size,  you  need  a  sys- 
tem for  keeping  track  of  how  much  stock  you 
have  in  order  that  you  may  know  when  it  is  nec- 
essary to  reorder  to  prevent  getting  out. 

The  best  method  of  keeping  stock  is  by  means 
of  a  stock  book  or  by  a  card  system.  The  card 
index  system  is  better  than  the  book  because 
it  is  perpetual  and  as  different  lines  are  thrown 
out  the  cards  may  be  thrown  out  while  in  a 
book  the  dead  lines  are  still  there  in  the  way. 
A  loose  leaf  book  might  answer  as  well  as  the 
card  system. 

The  card  index  should  perhaps  best  be  kept 
by  the  cash  register,  the  cashier's  desk,  or  at 
whatever  point  each  salesman  needs  to  come 
with  each  purchase,  and  he  ought  to  take  time 
unless  with  rare  rush  exceptions  to  make  his 
card  entry  at  the  time  of  sale,  otherwise  it  is 
very  likely  to  be  forgotten.  The  time  to  make 
any  kind  of  a  memorandum  is  NOW. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

In  this  card  index  the  stock  may  be  listed 
by  its  location  in  the  store  or  by  its  character. 
By  dividing  the  stock  into  its  proper  sub-di- 
visions each  division  need  not  be  large  and  the 
individual  item  can  be  found,  with  a  little  ex- 
perience, in  an  instant. 

The  card  should  show  the  stock  in  hand  a 
certain  time  of  inventory  and  it  should  show  the 
amount  of  new  stock  received  whenever  any  is 
added.  It  should  show  stock  sold. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  often  impractical  to  make 
notes  on  a  card  or  in  a  stock  book  of  each  in- 
dividual sale,  the  subtractions  of  stock  may 
be  made,  if  preferred,  in  the  form  of  entries 
each  time  that  a  new  original  package  is  opened, 
or  a  new  box  or  case  brought  out  of  the  re- 
serve stock.  This  will  show  then  at  a  glance 
the  amount  of  reserve  stock  on  hand  while  the 
shelf  stock  is  always  known  to  be  limited. 

A  variation  of  this  is  the  plan  of  keeping  a 
separate  stock  book  or  small  card  index  of  each 
section  of  the  stock  or  each  set  of  shelves,  each 
individual  sale  being  entered  in  this  when  made. 
This  plan  is  especially  adapted  to  forms  of 
stock  that  amount  to  but  limited  supplies,  all 
of  which  is  kept  right  on  the  shelf  from  which 
sales  are  made. 

A  simpler  plan,  and  one  that  is  more  univer- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

sally  followed,  is  the  Want  Book.  The  writer 
has  personally  followed  the  Want  Book  plan 
in  a  miscellaneous  business,  with  three  sales- 
men and  found  no  difficulty  in  keeping  stock 
up,  though  this  plan  necessitates  the  manager's 
following  every  line  of  goods  closely  and  per- 
sonally inspecting  stock  frequently,  with  regular 
searches  for  short  lines  that  may  have  been 
overlooked  in  sales-making. 

Many  individual  merchants  have  devised  plans 
better  adapted  for  their  particular  stores  thar 
anyone  else  can  recommend  to  them,  but  ir 
all  the  application  of  a  certain  general  prin- 
ciple should  be  recognized.  The  stock  plan  must 
show  how  much  of  the  goods  is  on  hand  and 
how  fast  they  have  sold  recently,  in  order  to  be 
an  accurate  guide  for  re-buying. 

A  well  kept  stock  book  or  other  system  makes 
the  inventory  a  simple  matter  and  if  sufficient 
detail  is  followed,  it  will  be  possible  to  tell  at 
any  time  what  the  state  of  the  entire  stock  is 
and  what  the  profits  of  the  business  are  amount- 
ing to  weekly. 

While  I  urge  constantly  the  desirability  of 
keeping  the  stock  down  T  do  not  want  to  over- 
emphasize this  point  because  it  is  self-evident 
that  if  we  do  not  have  the  goods  we  cannot 
sell  them  and  the  stock  must  be  kept  up,  not 
75 


Store  Management — Complete 

only  as  to  variety  but  in  some  degree  also  as  to 
quantity. 

You  must  be  able  to  supply  the  demand  by 
having  the  article  in  question  and  unless  you 
carry  a  proper  sized  stock  in  all  lines  there  will 
be  many  opportunities  lost  for  making  quantity 
sales.  The  buyer  should  keep  posted  on  the 
lines  that  are  likely  to  sell  on  occasion  in  large 
quantities.  No  store  can  afford  to  send  custom- 
ers away  for  lack  of  the  goods.  That  means 
a  loss  of  the  profit  on  the  sales  and  possible  loss 
of  the  customer. 

Almost  as  important  as  when  to  buy  is  what 
to  buy.  Perhaps  it  is  more  important. 

Buy  goods  for  which  you  have  a  demand. 
Don't  be  cajoled,  inveigled  or  bamboozled  into 
buying  goods  for  which  there  is  no  demand, 
goods  which  are  "going  to  sell  big." 

Stand  pat  on  the  new  goods  propositions  and 
if  a  manufacturer  wants  you  to  stock  a  new  line 
for  which  the  sale  is  yet  to  be  made,  let  him 
carry  the  stock.  If  he  has  faith  in  his  goods 
he  ought  to  be  willing  to  carry  the  stock  for 
you  until  the  demand  that  he  promises  really 
opens.  If  he  has  not  faith  in  his  goods  and 
does  not  care  to  do  this,  then  it  is  reasonable 
that  you  should  doubt  him.  Of  course  there 
are  cases  where  a  manufacturer  of  known  re- 

76 


Store  Management — Complete 

pute  produces  a  new  brand  or  new  line  and  tells 
you  that  he  is  going  to  make  it  sell  and  explains 
the  campaign  he  is  going  to  follow.  You  are 
usually  safe  in  buying  such  a  line  because  the 
seller  will  allow  you  to  exchange  the  new  goods 
for  the  older  and  already  selling  lines  he  makes 
if  the  new  fail  to  move  with  you. 

At  all  events  bear  in  mind  that  the  man  with 
a  new  line  of  goods  to  be  introduced  should 
make  very  favorable  terms.  He  is  the  one  who 
should  take  the  chances,  not  the  dealer.  You 
want  to  take  on  any  new  lines  that  will  sell 
but  you  already  have  enough  of  the  sort  that  do 
not  sell. 

The  dealer  who  is  to  be  a  good  buyer  should 
never  hestitate  about  buying  small  quantities. 
If  you  cannot  buy  in  the  quantities  that  your 
business  requires,  there  is  something  wrong  with 
the  house  from  whom  you  buy. 

Two  very  important  objects  are  accomplished 
in  buying  in  small  quantities  as  wanted.  One 
is  that  the  goods  are  always  new  and  fresh. 
The  other  is  that  you  keep  far  less  money,  tied 
up  in  stock.  You  turn  your  stock  oftener  and 
make  more  money. 

Of  course  the  quantity  discount  is  attractive 
and  there  are  many  cases  in  which  it  is  really 
worth  taking.  Also  freights  must  be  consid- 
77 


Store  Management — Complete 

ered.  But  when  all  advantages  of  quantity  buy- 
ing are  considered  it  will  be  found  that  many 
times  it  pays  better  to  buy  what  you  need  as  you 
need  it. 

It  frequently  occurs  that  some  traveling  man 
will  come  along  with  a  proposition  that  you 
take  "  the  quantity  "of  certain  goods  and  you 
will  be  given  so  much  free  goods  and  so  much 
advertising  matter  and  so  much  window  dis- 
play. 

There  are  times  when  this  proposition  calls 
for  your  acceptance  and  there  are  many  times 
when  it  calls  for  rejection.  It  is  a  large  part 
of  the  secret  of  good  buying  to  be  able  to  know 
what  to  buy  in  this  way  and  what  to  buy  "  as 
wanted." 

Each  individual  proposition  should  be  figured 
out.  A  careful  estimate  ought  to  be  made  of 
the  net  results  of  the  "  quantity "  proposition 
as  against  the  other  way.  And  listen  to  the 
voice  of  good  judgment  rather  than  to  the  voice 
of  the  salesman  whose  interests  are  largely  in 
making  large  sales. 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  consider 
whether  it  does  not  pay  to  do  a  good  deal  of 
buying  by  mail. 

In  staple  goods  which  the  dealer  knows  well 
78 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  knows  how  to  order  intelligently  —  and 
what  line  does  that  not  cover?  —  there  is  much 
advantage  in  ordering  by  mail. 

In  ordering  habitually  this  way  there  is  no 
waiting  until  a  salesman  arrives.  One  orders 
when  he  needs  the  goods.  Further,  he  orders 
what  goods  he  needs  and  there  is  no  one  stand- 
ing at  his  elbow  urging  him  to  buy  more  of 
this  or  to  make  this  quarter  dozen  into  a  half 
dozen  or  to  make  this  a  case  instead  of  a  half 
case. 

Of  course  I  know  that  it  is  to  the  salesman's 
eventual  advantage  to  sell  a  man  only  what  he 
needs  in  order  not  to  load  him  up  and  prejudice 
him  against  the  house.  It  is  perhaps  more  to 
the  advantage  of  the  house  than  to  that  of  the 
salesman,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
salesman  wants  to  hold  his  job.  He  wants  to 
make  a  good  showing,  or  he  wants  to  increase 
his  commission  and  to  him,  as  to  ourselves,  a 
bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush,  so 
with  all  the  good  intentions  in  the  world  he  is 
sure  to  sell  you  more  goods  than  you  would 
ever  buy  if  you  were  writing  the  order  in  the 
presence  of  no  one  but  your  own  good  judg- 
ment. 

You  sit  down  and  write  a  quarter  or  some- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

times  a  twelfth  of  a  dozen  very  cheerfully  when 
you  would  not  have  the  courage  to  mention  so 
small  a  lot  of  some  goods  to  the  drummer. 

And  more  than  this,  if  you  are  a  busy  man, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  you  should  not  be 
so,  your  time  is  worth  money.  There  is  some- 
thing you  can  always  be  doing  to  occupy  your 
time  to  your  greater  profit  or  to  your  greater 
enjoyment  than  in  sparring  with  a  traveling 
man  who  is  trying  to  get  under  your  belt  with 
some  extra  proposition. 

You  can  sit  down  and  write  an  order  in  time 
that  suits  your  own  convenience,  not  that  suits 
the  convenience  of  someone  with  a  train  to  make. 
You  choose  your  own  time,  time  which  you 
could  not  be  using  to  better  advantage  and  you 
write  the  order  and  post  it  in  just  about  half 
the  time  it  would  take  to  get  down  to  business 
with  the  drummer. 

Now,  I  have  nothing  against  the  traveling 
salesman.  I  like  them  and  they  are  full  of 
good  ideas  —  some  of  them.  Others  I  find  are 
mere  peripatetic  slot  machines  or  phonograph 
records  and  you  find  them  less  informed  upon 
your  goods  than  you  yourself  are. 

No  traveling  man  who  behaves  in  a  gentle- 
manly way  should  be  treated  with  anything  but 
courtesy.  He  is  in  the  business  of  selling  goods 
So 


And  bargain  departments  certainly  are  profitable. 
— See  page  62. 


Store  Management — Complete 

just  as  you  are.  You  owe  it  to  yourself  and 
to  him  and  to  your  business  to  treat  him  pleas- 
antly. But  you  do  not  owe  it  to  him  to  spend 
any  more  time  with  him  than  you  wish  to  spend. 
Neither  has  he  any  right  to  feel  offended  if 
you  say  that  you  are  busy  and  ask  to  be  excused. 
Some  salesmen  act  as  if  they  had  been  grossly 
insulted  if  a  dealer  declines  to  give  them  time 
to  show  him  their  line  —  assuming  that  they 
know  better  than  he  whether  he  is  in  the  market 
for  any  kind  of  their  goods  or  not. 

The  traveling  man  who  gets  "  sore  "  because 
he  is  not  given  a  chance  to  use  up  your  time 
when  you  are  polite  about  asking  him  to  ex- 
cuse you,  is  entitled  to  nothing  but  a  snub  next 
time  he  comes. 

Be  decent  to  the  drummer.  Visit  with  him  if 
you  want  to,  and  if  he  has  ideas,  get  them,  but 
don't  give  up  to  him  anything  that  you  don't 
want  to  give. 

There  is  some  advantage  in  being  able  to  buy 
in  person  right  in  the  market.  It  is  always 
better  to  buy  from  the  goods  themselves  than 
to  buy  from  hearsay  or  from  picture.  There 
is  though  one  disadvantage  that  accrues  from 
buying  where  the  stock  itself  is  shown.  In 
buying  from  stock  you  virtually  agree  to  take 
the  goods  as  the  stock  runs.  In  buying  from 
81 


Store  Management — Complete 

an  agent's  sample,  you  are  entitled  to  goods  all  of 
which  are  up  to  the  sample  and  in  buying  from 
a  picture  you  are  entitled  to  stock  that  all  the 
way  through  matches  the  description. 

Still  if  one  can  buy  "  in  the  house  "  one  sees 
how  the  goods  look  as  he  will  get  them.  He 
sees  many  things  that  would  not  come  to  him 
through  the  traveler  and  he  sees  all  sizes  and 
grades  instead  of  only  representative  samples. 
If  he  buys  unintelligently  it  is  his  own  fault, 
while  buying  wrongly  at  home  may  be  the  fault 
of  a  salesman  or  of  a  deficient  catalog.  Avoid 
accepting  expense  money  from  a  wholesaler 
under  such  circumstances  that  you  will  not  feel 
perfectly  free  to  follow  your  inclinations  in  buy- 
ing. 

One  thing  is  certain,  it  pays  to  go  to  the 
market  as  often  as  possible  in  order  to  see  what 
is  going  on  in  the  larger  retail  centers  as  well  as 
to  get  into  closer  touch  with  the  wholesale  mar- 
ket. The  retail  stores  in  your  line  should  be 
visited  when  you  go  to  the  city  just  as  certainly 
as  you  visit  the  wholesale  houses,  and  of  the 
two  preferably  neglect  the  wholesaler. 

One  keeps  in  touch  with  the  market  better  if 

he    does    not    confine    his    observations    to    the 

wholesale   side  of  the  trade   entirely.     For  the 

man  who  can  get  to  the  market  but  infrequently 

82 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  who  must  depend  upon  his  own  judgment 
very  largely,  there  is  the  greatest  value  in  the 
trade  journals. 

Personally  I  have  found  trade  journals  ex- 
ceedingly useful  and  reliable.  I  would  far 
rather  depend  upon  the  trade  journals  and  mail 
ordering  than  upon  the  traveling  man.  The 
trade  journal  holds  no  brief  for  any  one  con- 
cern. It  is  open  to  all.  It  is  just  as  much  inter- 
ested in  getting  hold  of  good  new  things  about 
which  to  advise  its  readers  as  its  readers  are 
in  hearing  about  the  goods.  It  will  keep  any 
retailer  posted  if  he  will  give  it  a  chance.  And 
I  would  recommend  reading  several  journals, 
one  for  each  line  of  goods  carried.  Money 
invested  in  such  papers  is  productive  of  the 
best  return  you  can  get  for  so  small  an  invest- 
ment. 

In  no  part  of  the  management  of  the  busi- 
ness is  accurate  knowledge  of  its  details  as  im- 
portant as  in  the  buying. 

The  man  who  buys  must  be  pretty  nearly 
omniscient.  He  must  know  all  about  every- 
thing. He  must  know  qualities  as  well  as  sala- 
bilities  and  he  must  know  the  market  from  A 
to  Z. 

He  must  know  enough  about  bulk  goods  to 
make  it  unnecessary  for  him  to  pay  about 

83 


Store  Management — Complete 

double  the  price  for  a  maker's  name  in  order  to 
be  certain  of  quality.  He  must  be  able  to  tell 
quality  when  he  sees  it  and  thus  get  it  at  the 
bottom  figure. 

Speculative  buying  is  well  left  alone  by  the 
man  who  is  at  all  short  of  capital.  It  is  haz- 
ardous at  the  best  and  its  extra  profit  often 
turns  into  a  loss  before  the  dealer  can  realize 
upon  his  goods. 

Leave  the  speculative  buying  to  the  man  who 
has  plenty  of  money  and  can  stand  a  loss. 
Speculation  of  any  kind  involves  the  possibility 
of  loss,  otherwise  there  would  be  nothing  specu- 
lative about  it. 

The  buying  club  plan  is  one  which  is  sus- 
ceptible of  further  development  in  towns  of  all 
sizes.  In  cities  particularly  retailers  may  well 
combine  to  buy  to  their  advantage,  thus  getting 
quantity  prices  without  having  to  stock  up  be- 
yond their  needs.  If  you  do  not  want  to  unite 
with  your  competitors,  you  can  often  find  some 
kinds  of  goods  which  dealers  in  other  lines  v/ill 
buy  with  you. 

They  talk  about  doing  away  with  the  jobber. 
It  can't  be  done.  The  jobber  is  a  necessity. 
Nothing  else  can  take  his  place  as  a  medium 
for  assembling  a  large  variety  of  small  order 
goods.  Still  it  pays  to  get  in  touch  with  the 
84 


Store  Management — Complete 

manufacturer  when  possible.  The  price  you 
will  pay  the  manufacturer  may  be  the  same  as 
that  paid  the  jobber  but  the  hustling  retailer  who 
wants  the  help  of  the  advertising  manufacturer 
finds  that  he  gets  more  of  that  help  "if  he  buys 
direct  and  gets  into  personal  touch  with  head- 
quarters. In  that  way  he  gets  more  assistance 
in  the  selling  and  is  recognized  as  an  individual 
distributor  rather  than  merely  as  a.  member  of 
an  army  of  retail  outlets. 

In  buying  for  future  demand  the  greatest 
care  is  needed.  One  can  tell  how  much  to  buy 
of  a  certain  article  that  is  selling  every  day,  but 
it  is  more  difficult  to  know  how  much  to  buy  of 
an  article  that  is  to  be  seasonable  for  a  month 
or  two  or  three  months  in  the  future. 

Records  of  past  seasons  should  be  looked  up 
and  a  careful  estimate  made  and  the  tempta- 
tion to  plunge  held  down.  Plungers  are  never 
sure  winners. 

Avoid  buying  on  commission  or  having  stock 
left  in  the  store  on  consignment  unless  condi- 
tions are  very  exceptional  such  as  the  introduc- 
tion of  new  goods.  Such  stock  becomes  soiled 
and  unreturnable.  It  becomes  misplaced  and 
has  to  be  paid  for  when  it  is  not  sold.  It  has 
to  be  insured  by  the  merchant  carrying  it  in  his 
store  and  he  takes  all  the  chances  except  the 

85 


Store  Management — Complete 

investment  and  there  is  ordinarily  little  advan- 
tage gained  by  the  arrangement. 

In  buying  by  mail  or  any  other  way,  always 
keep  a  copy  of  your  order,  preferably  a  carbon 
copy.  This  is  your  insurance  against  "  stuffed  " 
orders,  altered  prices,  unspecified  conditions  and 
terms,  etc. 

When  the  traveling  man  hands  you  an  order 
to  sign,  see  that  it  is  made  in  manifold  so  that 
you  get  exactly  what  you  give  him.  And  by 
the  way  there  are  many  objections  to  signing 
orders  in  spite  of  the  prevalence  of  the  custom. 
Anyway  sign  no  orders  that  have  not  a  duplicate 
for  you  underneath.  And  save  the  duplicate 
for  reference.  Follow  this  same  plan  in  buying 
in  the  house.  The  conditions  are  the  same. 

When  you  send  a  mail  order,  .slip  a  carbon 
sheet  under  the  order  blank  and  make  your  own 
duplicate.  Get  special  order  blanks  from  all  the 
houses  with  whom  you  do  business  frequently. 
Keep  these  and  the  printed  addressed  envelopes 
that  they  will  also  send  you  on  request  in  an 
apartment  of  the  desk  where  they  are  easily  avail- 
able. 

By  using  these  forms  and  envelopes  you  save 

time  and  stationery  and  also  labor,  since  it  is 

easier  to  put  an  order  on  a  special  form  than 

on    a    letterhead    of    your    own.     A    good    plan 

86 


Store  Management — Complete 

though  more  expensive  is  to  have  order  blanks 
of  your  own  made  in  quantities  in  uniform  size 
on  light  weight  paper  perforated  so  that  you 
can  file  them  in  a  loose  leaf  binder.  This  plan 
enables  a  merchant  to  keep  a  perfect  record 
of  all  orders  and  to  keep  it  in  compact  form. 
The  duplicate  sheets  should  be  of  thin  paper 
so  that  many  may  be  filed  in  small  space.  Yel- 
low tissue  unruled  is  suitable  and  very  cheap. 

The  best  order  form  is  the  one  that  makes  it 
the  easiest  to  write  the  order  and  at  the  same 
time  embodies  all  the  necessary  information. 
It  should  have  the  name  and  address  printed 
in,  also  shipping  point,  and  it  is  wise  to  insert 
the  clause,  "  Report  on  all  goods  short  on  this 
order  and  cancel  the  order  for  same  unless  other- 
wise directed  below." 

Sometimes  the  direction  is  used,  "  If  no  ship- 
ping instructions  are  given,  ship  by  cheapest 
route."  It  is  well  to  have  a  small  blank  space 
on  the  order  for  "  Terms."  Insert  here  the 
terms  you  expect. 

Don't  buy  more  goods  than  you  can  pay  for 
whether  you  need  them  or  not.  Because  there 
is  a  long  dating  on  a  bill  don't  forget  that  the 
bill  will  come  due  just  the  same  and  have  to 
be  paid.  One  merchant  known  to  the  writer 
made  and  followed  the  rule  never  to  send  an 

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Store  Management — Complete 

order  for  goods  that  he  had  not  then  and  there 
the  money  in  the  bank  to  pay  for.  This  rule 
is  a  good  one  but  it  would  hamper  a  merchant 
decidedly  unless  sometimes  honored  in  the  breach. 

Credit  is  simply  belief  in  your  ability  to  pay. 
A  man  may  have  no  rating  and  no  property  and 
yet  have  credit.  On  the  other  hand  he  may 
have  both  property  and  rating  and  possess  poor 
credit  because  he  is  slow  pay,  or  because  he  is 
lacking  in  honesty. 

Nowadays  a  man's  honesty  is  considered  of  as 
much  importance  as  his  capital.  Many  a  young 
man  with  ability  and  a  good  record  can  get  credit 
where  a  man  with  more  money  and  a  bad  record 
would  be  turned  down.  Never  repudiate  a  debt 
and  don't  haggle  about  any  kind  of  a  claim  and 
you  will  have  no  trouble  about  keeping  your 
credit  good. 

Of  course  it  is  wise  to  establish  a  rating  with 
the  commercial  agencies  even  if  you  are  having 
no  trouble  buying  goods  without  giving  them 
any  information.  Tell  them  a  straight  story. 
Give  them  nothing  but  facts  and  take  pains  to  be 
courteous  about  it  and  explain  at  length  anything 
that  looks  as  if  it  might  count  against  you.  Im- 
press them  with  your  good  intentions  and  with 
your  ability  and  your  energy. 

The  ability  to  get  business  is  something  that 
88 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  commercial  agencies  may  not  put  into  their 
regular  reports,  but  you  may  be  sure  that  it  will 
go  into  any  special  report  that  is  called  for  on 
your  standing. 

The  honest  man  has  the  advantage  all  along 
the  line  and  the  credit  men  of  the  country  know 
who  is  honest  and  who  is  not  with  few  excep- 
tions. They  take  few  chances  and  allow  few 
favors  to  the  man  whom  they  consider  tricky  in 
any  degree. 

The  man  who  is  anxious  to  maintain  a  high 
grade  of  credit  must  use  every  precaution  to 
observe  the  terms  upon  which  he  buys  goods. 
He  must  have  his  check  in  the  creditor's  hands 
at  the  moment  it  is  due  if  not  before.  He  must 
never  allow  himself  to  trust  to  good  nature  to 
allow  him  a  few  extra  days.  He  must  not  seek 
cash  discounts  when  his  remittance  is  a  few  days 
overtime  in  reaching  its  destination.  Ten  days 
means  ten  days.  Don't  expect  that  you  can  vio- 
late the  terms  of  the  contract  of  purchase  with- 
out leaving  an  unfavorable  impression. 

Your  jobber  may  overlook  your  little  delays 
in  payment  from  time  to  time,  but  when  there 
comes  a  day  in  which  you  want  some  additional 
favor  in  the  credit  line  you  will  be  looked  at 
askance  if  you  are  the  kind  to  be  always  a  little 
late  in  paying. 


Store  Management — Complete 

Always  take  your  cash  discounts  if  they 
amount  to  more  than  you  are  paying  for  the  use 
of  money  with  which  to  do  business.  Better  to 
borrow  money  at  6  per  cent,  than  to  throw  away 
a  i  per  cent,  ten  days  when  the  bill  is  net  30 
days. 

In  making  remittances  the  voucher  check  is 
coming  into  common  use.  Receipts  are  becom- 
ing more  and  more  obsolete.  They  use  up  post- 
age and  time  at  both  ends  of  the  route. 

Adopt  a  neat,  concise  form  of  check  with 
enough  blank  space  on  the  left-hand  end  to  al- 
low of  an  entry  of  the  dates  and  nature  of  the 
items  for  which  the  check  is  drawn. 

The  best  way  to  handle  incoming  invoices  to 
make  the  least  book-keeping  is  to  remit  for  the 
goods  as  soon  as  they  have  been  checked  off  on 
the  invoice,  entering  on  the  check  the  date  of 
the  invoice  for  which  it  is  payment,  together 
with  the  deductions  in  the  nature  of  discounts 
or  other  allowances. 

Of  course  it  takes  a  little  more  money  to  pay 
bills  at  what  may  be  virtually  five  days  instead 
of  ten,  but  the  difference  is  not  much.  With 
this  plan  all  that  is  necessary  is  a  desk  pigeon- 
hole into  which  the  incoming  invoices  are  placed 
and  the  ones  to  be  paid  taken  out  each  day. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

With  this  plan  there  is  no  book-keeping  at  all  on 
bills  payable. 

If  it  is  necessary  or  desirable  to  keep  a  record, 
the  simpler  it  is,  the  better,  and  all  that  is  need- 
ful is  to  register  the  data  about  the  invoice  in  a 
"  Bills  Payable "  book  and  make  its  payment 
automatic  by  checking  payment  days  on  the  cal- 
endar. This  is  ot  course  chiefly  necessary  when 
it  is  advisable  to  let  bills  run  their  full  time,  as 
one  could  not  keep  track  of  a  pile  of  invoices 
covering  thirty  or  sixty  days'  time  and  filed  in 
no  more  convenient  form  than  being  placed  to- 
gether in  a  pigeon-hole. 

Whatever  plan  is  followed  it  should  be  simple 
and  as  far  as  possible  automatic  in  its  working, 
making  it  unnecessary  for  the  merchant  to  carry 
the  individual  invoices  in  his  mind.  The  daily 
memorandum  calendar  pad  is  so  common  on 
every  man's  desk  nowadays  that  it  serves  as  a 
"  tickler "  by  putting  the  desired  memoranda 
upon  its  pages  in  advance  so  that  when  a  leaf  is 
taken  off  each  morning  the  financial  obligations 
of  the  day  confront  one  at  once. 

Routine  in  the  ordinary,  every  day  duties  of 
the  business  makes  things  run  more  smoothly. 
What  becomes  a  habit  requires  no  special  en- 
deavor. 


Store  Management — Complete 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  buying  end  of  the 
business,  regardless  of  how  much  money  it  may 
save  or  make,  is  of  the  greatest  importance  and 
requires  extreme  care  in  every  detail  from  the 
beginning  of  the  need  for  the  goods  until  the 
check  in  payment  for  them  has  been  mailed. 


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CHAPTER  V 

THE  STORE  POLICY 

The  policy  of  the  store  is  what  makes  people 
like  or  dislike  to  trade  there.  And  according  as 
people  like  to  trade  in  a  store  or  not,  that  store 
will  be  a  success  or  a  failure. 

You  are  running  a  business  that  is  paying  you 
well  and  you  get  fair  prices  for  all  your  goods. 
A  new  store  opens  that  cuts  the  prices  on  your 
lines  of  stock,  or  on  some  of  them,  to  make  lead- 
ers and  get  the  people  to  come  in.  You  say 
"  I'm  not  going  to  pay  any  attention  to  that  fel- 
low." You  tell  your  customers  who  ask  if  you 
are  going  to  meet  his  prices,  "  No,  w.e  won't  sell 
goods  below  cost  for  anybody.  If  that  fellow 
wants  to  do  business  for  fun,  let  him.  We  are 
going  to  have  a  profit  on  our  goods  or  we  will 
keep  them." 

What  will  be  the  result  of  that  policy?  It 
plays  right  into  the  new  man's  hands.  It  is  the 
best  that  he  could  hope  for.  It  is  just  what  he 
wants.  It  helps  him  to  get  people  into  his  store 
and  it  keeps  them  coming  there  because  they 
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Store  Management — Complete 

can  save  money  by  it.  They  go  there  to  save 
money  on  a  few  items  and  they  end  by  buying 
other  goods  and  in  some  cases  at  least  will  be- 
come his  customers. 

That  is  a  mistaken  policy.  As  far  as  the  pub- 
lic is  concerned  and  as  far  as  they  know  about 
it,  your  policy  should  seem  to  be  "  We  will  not 
be  undersold."  It  may  be  that  you  do  not  want 
to  meet  such  cut  prices  and  you  need  necessarily 
do  it  to  any  great  extent,  but  the  public  must  be 
made  to  think  that  you  are  game. 

Do  not  make  the  mistake,  unless  exceptional 
circumstances  warrant  it,  of  counter-cutting, 
going  below  the  other  fellow,  for  he  -will  simply 
go  on  down.  He  has  come  to  town  to  get  busi- 
ness. He  has  adopted  the  cut  price  as  his  chief 
weapon.  He  at  least  cannot  afford  to  be  under- 
sold. One  of  the  best  ways  to  meet  this  new- 
comer with  his  axe  in  his  hand  is  to  send  direct- 
by-mail  advertising  to  your  mailing  list,  offering 
the  goods  he  has  cut  on  at  the  same  prices  as 
his  and  doing  your  best  to  make  it  appear  that 
you  yourself  are  the  originator  of  the  bargain 
rates. 

At  all  events  sell  what  goods  you  must  of  the 
cut  price  articles  at  the  prices  he  has  made,  for 
the  public  must  not  be  allowed  to  gain  the  im- 
pression that  your  store  stands  for  high  prices. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

Aside  from  the  store's  policy  in  the  matter  of 
prices  there  are  ajmost  countless  other  matters 
wherein  a  definite  plan  should  be  adopted  and 
followed.  Adapting  the  policy  to  suit  the  peo- 
ple calls  usually  for  sacrifices  in  the  way  of  bet- 
ter prices,  more  expensive  methods  or  greater 
effort  to  be  polite  and  courteous.  All  these 
things  are  worth  the  trial  and  the  expense  be- 
cause they  all  produce  results.  They  get  trade. 

Just  the  little  matter  of  the  way  in  which  cus- 
tomers are  greeted  when  they  enter  the  store  is 
important.  And  the  policy  in  this  line  is  not 
what  one  employee  does,  for  one  swallow  does 
not  make  a  summer,  but  it  is  what  all  do,  what 
the  impression  of  the  force  as  a  whole  may  be. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  employes  of  a  store  are 
pretty  apt  to  average  a  good  deal  alike  in  mat- 
ters of  routine  work.  One  who  stands  very  far 
above  the  rest  will  soon  seek  a  better  field  for 
his  talents  if  the  average  is  low  in  his  present 
place. 

There  are  stores  where  no  one  is  really  greeted 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  —  customers  being 
spoken  to  only  when  they  speak  to  a  clerk.  That 
sort  of  treatment,  or  lack  of  treatment,  does  not 
warm  one's  heart  very  much  toward  the  store. 
What  we  like  ourselves  when  we  go  buying  is  to 
have  someone  greet  us  cordially  when  we  enter 
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Store  Management — Complete 

the  store  and  act  as  if  our  coming  were  appre- 
ciated and  as  if  we  were  really  welcomed.  And 
we  like  it  when  we  are  called  by  name.  The 
store  where  they  speak  only  when  they  are  spoken 
to  is  doomed  to  disappointment  in  the  matter  of 
annual  receipts. 

Politeness  or  courtesy  is  a  cardinal  policy.  In 
fact  it  might  be  said  to  be  the  basis  of  all  good 
store  policy.  Courtesy  is  merely  the  practical 
application  of  the  Golden  Rule  and  as  a  ground- 
work for  a  good  store  policy  no  one  has  yet 
found  anything  better. 

It  is  the  new  visitor  to  the  store  who  should 
be  given  the  limit  in  the  matter  of  polite  atten- 
tion. The  stranger  may  be  merely  a  transient, 
with  no  chance  of  becoming  a  regular  customer, 
but  also  the  stranger  may  be  a  new  inhabitant 
of  the  town  whose  trade  might  become  the  best 
of  any  one  family's  trade.  You  never  know  it 
and  it  is  not  worth  while  to  take  chances  just 
because  you  think  a  visitor  is  a  transient.  Any- 
way, the  veriest  transient  will  buy  more  while 
he  is  in  the  store  if  he  is  treated  well,  and  when 
opportunity  offers  he  will  go  out  and  give  the 
store  a  better  name. 

It  has  always  been  said  that  "  Honesty  is  the 
best  policy  "  and  I  believe  it  is  not  denied.  Of 
course  the  general  term  Honesty  covers  a  multi- 


The  guess  method  is  all  wrong  no  matter  how 
small  a  store  he.  runs. — See  page  73. 


Store  Management — Complete 

tude  of  virtues,  and  the  kernel  of  many  of  the 
policies  that  we  discuss  from  time  to  time  is 
nothing  more  than  good,  old  fashioned  honesty. 
Whatever  policies  you  adopt,  see  that  they  are 
based  upon  honesty,  or  at  least  that  there  is  in 
them  nothing  that  violates  that  cardinal  prin- 
ciple. 

One  of  the  matters  of  policy  that  has  been 
discussed  pro  and  con  for  a  long  time  is  that 
regarding  the  money-back-if-you-want-it  propo- 
sition. There  are  a  good  many  merchants  who 
will  not  do  business  on  this  plan.  They  say 
they  can't  afford  to,  or  it  doesn't  apply  to  their 
line  of  trade,  or  they  don't  have  to  sell  goods  that 
way,  or  they  make  some  other  excuse  for  their 
attitude  in  the  matter. 

As  to  your  attitude  in  the  matter  I  believe 
that  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  whatever  other 
merchants  may  think  about  it  or  whatever  they 
may  be  able  or  unable  to  do,  you  can  give  people 
back  their  money  when  you  think  they  ought  to 
have  it  and  you  can  make  money  by  doing  so. 

The  customer  who  has  bought  something  from 
you  that  has  proved  unsatisfactory  will  either 
be  a  friend  or  an  enemy  of  your  store  according 
as  you  make  the  purchase  good  or  refuse  to  do 
so.  That  customer  may  say  nothing  to  you 
about  the  matter,  but  stop  trading  at  your  store 
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Store  Management — Complete 

and  go  elsewhere,  complaining  about  the  quality 
of  the  goods  that  turned  out  badly.  In  that  case 
there  is  nothing  that  you  can  do.  It  is  too  late. 
By  establishing  a  reputation  for  not  being  willing 
to  make  wrong  right  you  have  kept  that  customer 
from  coming  back  to  give  you  a  chance  to  make 
good. 

People  know  what  your  policy  is  about  re- 
funding money  without  coming  to  ask  you.  The 
news  of  one  time  when  you  refuse  to  give  back 
a  purchase  price  will  spread  faster  than  the 
knowledge  of  ten  times  when  you  did  make  good. 
The  best  policy  to  pursue  is  that  of  making  the 
stored  attitude  plain  at  the  time  of  the  pur- 
chase. If  the  goods  sold  are  of  a  kind  that  you 
do  not  want  to  guarantee,  don't  leave  the  fact 
to  the  customer's  imagination.  State  with  the 
purchase  that  the  goods  are  not  warranted  in 
any  way.  A  printed  statement  to  this  effect  on 
the  goods  or  their  wrapper  is  not  sufficient.  Let 
the  salesman  TELL  the  customer  in  so  many 
words.  The  plain  statement  of  this  condition 
in  connection  with  certain  grades  of  goods  will 
often  lead  to  the  sale  of  something  better  that 
IS  guaranteed. 

The  policy  of  every  store  should  unqualifiedly 
be  that  of  refunding  money  on  goods  that  have 
proved  unsatisfactory.  Let  the  exceptions  be 


Store  Management — Complete 

amply  covered  when  the  sale  is  made  in  the  way 
above  mentioned. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  customer  is  entitled 
to  money  back  on  a  purchase  that  has  proved  to 
be  worth  less  than  the  sum  paid.  And  also  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  mighty  few  are  the  customers 
who  come  back  and  ask  for  their  money  unless 
they  are  really  entitled  to  it,  or  believe  they  are. 

The  money  back  does  not  always  take  the  form 
of  an  actual  payment  of  cash.  An  exchange 
may  be  made,  allowing  something  for  the  re- 
turned goods.  Or  the  goods  may  be  returnable 
to  the  manufacturer  in  the  case  of  defect.  Many 
circumstances  may  influence  the  results.  But  I 
believe  that  there  is  not  one  instance  in  a  hun- 
dred, perhaps  not  one  in  five  hundred,  where  it 
is  wise  to  refuse  to  refund  money  if  it  is  asked 
by  the  customer. 

In  my  personal  experience  the  following  hap- 
pened which  will  show  the  extent  to  which  I  be- 
lieve a  dealer  ought  to  go  in  refunding. 

A  customer  brought  in  a  defective  hot  water 
bottle  that  she  said  a  member  of  the  family  had 
bought  from  me  some  months  before.  She  said 
the  bottle  was  sold  on  a  year's  guarantee  and 
that  it  had  not  worn  that  long. 

I  believed  in  the  honesty  of  the  customer,  but 
I  knew  the  water  bottle  was  of  a  brand  I  had 
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Store  Management — Complete 

never  had  in  the  store.  I  explained  this  to  the 
customer,  but  she  said  that  she  was  positive  that 
the  goods  had  come  from  my  store,  so  I  gave  her 
a  new  bottle  for  the  old  one  and  she  went  away 
happy.  A  few  months  after  she  came  back  and 
apologized.  The  hot  water  bottle  that  had  actu- 
ally come  from  my  store  had  turned  up  and  the 
other  was  found  to  have  been  a  cheap  one  bought 
elsewhere.  The  customer  made  good  the 
amount  and  naturally  that  family  will  not  go 
back  on  the  store  that  made  good  when  they  did 
not  have  to  do  so.  If  the  customer  had  never 
discovered  the  error,  as  you  suggest  might  have 
happened,  I  would  still  have  lost  nothing,  for  I 
would  have  retained  the  trade  of  the  family, 
whereas  if  I  had  refused  to  make  the  purchase 
good  I  would  have  lost  them  at  least  until  the 
mistake  was  discovered. 

Such  a  case  is  extreme  and  if  the  article  had 
been  one  which  involved  a  good  deal  of  money, 
the  purchase  could  have  been  traced  back  in  such 
a  way  that  I  could  have  satisfied  the  customer 
that  she  was  wrong.  Such  a  mistake  would  not 
occur  except  in  the  case  of  low  priced  goods. 

The  matter  of  a  policy  regarding  the  return  of 

goods  requires  much  the  same  consideration  that 

the    "  money    back "    policy    receives.     Certain 

goods    cannot   be    returned    under    any    circum- 

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Store  Management — Complete 

stances.     Very     well.     Have     that     understood 
when  they  are  sold. 

Other  goods  are  sold  frankly  "  on  approval." 
Let  that  be  understood  in  advance  too.  You 
want  to  get  all  the  benefit  you  can  from  selling 
in  that  way.  The  way  to  get  it  is  to  adver- 
tise it. 

Goods  brought  back  because  of  defect  or  dis- 
satisfaction ought  to  be  given  treatment  that  will 
suit  the  complainant.  Don't  let  a  kicker  go 
away  feeling  "  sore." 

Another  important  policy  matter  is  that  of  the 
pushing  of  what  the  general  advertiser  and  man- 
ufacturer calls  "  substitutes  " ;  in  other  words, 
goods  that  are  similar  to  his  own  and  sold  on  a 
demand  of  something  different  in  name. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  retailer  has  a  right, 
both  moral  and  legal,  to  sell  something  different 
from  the  article  called  for  if  he  has  the  sales- 
manship to  do  it.  No  retailer  is  going  to  stand 
with  his  mouth  open  and  see  a  prospective  buyer 
go  out  without  effort  to  stop  him  just  because  a 
certain  brand  of  generally  advertised  article  is 
not  in  stock.  "  Have  you  Muggin's  Mush  ? " 
No  Muggin's  Mush  in  stock.  There  is  a  chance 
to  sell  Miggin's  Mush  instead.  Will  you  let  the 
chance  slip  by?  Not  if  you  are  "onto  your 
job." 

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Store  Management — Complete 

If  you  don't  have  what  the  customer  wants,  try 
to  sell  him  what  you  do  have,  but  in  the  name 
of  all  that  is  tactful,  be  careful  how  you  go 
about  it! 

The  wise  merchant  nowadays  tries  to  carry  a 
pretty  fair  line  of  most  of  the  goods  the  manu- 
facturers are  advertising  everywhere,  and  he  does 
his  best  to  utilize  the  willing  co-operation  of  the 
manufacturer  in  making  these  goods  sell.  He 
may  have  his  own  special  lines,  but  he  stands 
ready  to  give  the  people  what  they  want  and  he 
encourages  his  clerks  in  trying  to  sell  his  brands 
in  the  place  of  others  only  when  there  is  no 
danger  of  offending  the  customer  by  doing  so. 

The  public  knows  what  stores  customarily  try 
to  sell  them  something  "  just  as  good "  and 
never  have  the  goods  called  for,  and  people  who 
find  a  store  short  of  the  standard  lines  of  goods 
soon  get  into  the  habit  of  going  elsewhere.  It  is 
good  policy  to  have  special  lines,  individual  lines 
and  to  push  them  properly,  but  it  is  mighty  poor 
policy  to  push  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  get  the 
reputation  of  never  having  what  people  want  and 
always  offering  a  substitute. 

The  object  of  a  policy  is  more  to  hold  trade 
than  to  get  it.  People  are  likely  sooner  or  later 
to  try  a  store  which  has  a  known  bad  policy,  but 
1 02 


Store  Management — Complete 

they  are  not  likely  to  come  back  to  try  the  store 
a  second  time. 

It  should  be  a  matter  of  the  store's  policy  to 
try  hard  to  please  the  people  who  are  hardest  to 
please  and  never  to  rub  them  the  wrong  way. 
The  cranky  and  finicky  customers  when  they 
ARE  suited  are  the  best  kind  of  customers  a 
store  can  have  in  the  matter  of  the  advertising 
they  will  do  for  the  business. 

Some  stores  make  it  a  rule  never  to  cash 
checks  for  their  customers.  Most  stores  do 
cash  them  where  they  are  acquainted  with  the 
parties  and  find  that  it  pays  to  be  thus  accommo- 
dating. 

It  is  probably  wise  to  rule  that  no  checks  be 
cashed  except  under  the  supervision  of  the  man- 
ager of  the  store.  This  makes  it  possible  for 
clerks  to  avoid  taking  up  paper  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  parties  concerned  and  it  relieves  the 
clerks  of  personal  responsibility  in  the  matter. 
There  are  many  times  when  there  is  no  ad- 
vantage in  a  store  cashing  a  check.  This  is  true 
in  the  instance  of  strangers  in  town  who  need 
money  when  the  bank  is  closed.  The  only  thing 
one  gets  in  cashing  their  checks  is  a  chance  of 
losing.  It  pays  to  cash  checks  for  customers, 
but  it  does  not  pay  to  cash  them  for  people  who 
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Store  Management — Complete 

are  not  in  a  position  to  produce  any  revenue 
for  the  store. 

Another  matter  of  policy  in  the  handling  of 
cash  refers  to  changing  money  as  an  accommo- 
dation and  to  carrying  enough  change  to  do  busi- 
ness with.  Of  course  big  stores  have  plenty  of 
currency  on  hand  for  all  purposes,  but  many  a 
small  dealer  keeps  his  cash  so  low  that  he  cannot 
change  the  ten  dollar  bill  offered  by  a  customer 
without  going  out  after  change  and  he  is  never 
in  a  position  to  make  change  as  a  mere  matter  of 
accommodation. 

It  is  aggravating  to  be  bothered  time  and  again 
with  requests  to  "  bust  a  five/'  but  I  believe  that 
it  pays  the  smaller  dealer  to  make  it  a  point  in 
his  policy  to  have  enough  change  on  hand  to 
accommodate  people  who  want  the  accommo- 
dation as  well  as  to  make  change  when  making 
sales. 

One  important  thing  in  this  connection  is  the 
matter  of  politeness  and  the  store  that  cannot 
change  a  bill  as  a  matter  of  accommodation  and 
do  it  in  a  way  that  will  make  a  friend  for  the 
store,  or  increase  the  friendship  of  a  customer 
might  as  well  not  make  the  effort,  for  to  do  a 
kindness  grudgingly  is  to  do  no  kindness  at  all. 

No  store  but  needs  friends.  Friends  are  what 
make  a  store  succeed  and  friends  are  mainly 
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Store  Management — Complete 

gained  by  the  little  extra  courtesies  rather  than 
by  the  mere  dollar  for  dollar  value. 

In  connection  with  the  store  telephone  there 
is  a  matter  of  policy  that  is  rather  important. 
This  policy  embraces  all  features  of  the  'phone's 
use  from  that  of  receiving  orders  to  that  of  lend- 
ing it  for  a  few  minutes  to  a  visitor. 

In  some  stores  you  are  not  allowed  to  use  the 
telephone  at  all,  and  this  is  better  than  to  be  al- 
lowed its  use  with  a  grudging  assent. 

In  some  stores  they  do  not  seem  to  want  any 
telephone  orders,  if  one  is  to  judge  by  the  treat- 
ment one  gets  over  the  wire. 

"  Hello,  is  this  Brown's  ?  "     . 

"Yes,  what  d'  y'  want?" 

No  courtesy  in  the  words  and  none  in  the  in- 
tonation. A  verbal  snap-off  of  the  inquirer's 
head. 

If  possible  the  telephone  should  be  answered 
by  someone  who  has  a  reasonably  pleasant  speak- 
ing voice  and  a  civil  manner.  There  should  be 
just  a  little  more  courtesy  over  the  telephone 
than  there  is  right  over  the  counter,  just  as  one 
must  use  more  care  transacting  business  by  let- 
ter. Many  things  which  may  be  said  directly, 
face  to  face,  cannot  be  said  in  the  same  way,  or 
perhaps  at  all,  by  telephone  or  in  a  letter. 

Telephone  orders  may  be  made  an  important 
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Store  Management — Complete 

part  of  one's  business  if  tried  for  and  treated 
right.  Or  that  part  of  the  business  may  be  car- 
ried on  to  failure,  weighed  down  by  careless- 
ness. 

In  some  stores  the  disposal  of  what  might  be 
called  in  any  line  "  remnants  "  is  attended  with 
uncertain  methods.  It  is  also  attended  some- 
times with  results  that  are  anything  but  satisfac- 
tory to  the  customer. 

In  a  store  the  writer  knew  of,  nothing  was  ever 
sold  for  less  than  the  regular  price,  no  matter 
how  little  was  left  in  stock  or  whether  the  line 
was  to  be  discontinued  or  not.  There  was  no 
such  thing  as  a  "  remnant."  Everything  was 
good  stock  until  it  brought  the  marked  figure. 

If  a  customer  went  in  and  wanted  a  certain 
amount  of  some  kind  of  stock  and  only  a  third  of 
that  amount  was  on  hand  he  would  be  urged  to 
take  that  amount  and  pay  full  price  for  it.  He 
might  do  it,  but  he  would  regard  the  store  man- 
agement as  mighty  close,  and  he  would  be  about 
right  In  matters  like  that  there  must  be  a  lati- 
tude of  judgment  allowed  the  salesman  that  will 
obviate  the  possibility  of  getting  the  store  a  rep- 
utation for  stinginess. 

No  stingy  store  ever  became  popular  and  it  is 
perhaps  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  no  stingy 
store  ever  became  a  large  success.  Stinginess 
106  " 


Store  Management — Complete 

is  a  quality  with  which  people  have  no  patience, 
whether  they  meet  it  in  business  or  elsewhere. 
The  generous  policy  in  all  branches  of  manage- 
ment is  the  only  winning  policy.  It  is  sometimes 
the  cause  of  a  little  additional  expense  and  it 
may  come  hard  on  the  man  who  hates  to  part 
with  money,  but  it  is  more  expensive  to  be  stingy 
than  it  can  ever  be  to  be  generous. 

To  most  merchants  there  comes  a  time  occa- 
sionally when  it  is  necessary  to  decide  whether 
to  combine  with  competitors  to  uphold  certain 
prices.  There  is  too  much  tendency  to  chop 
prices  down  and  not  enough  to  elevate  them  so 
that  it  seems  wise  to  take  advantage  of  most  op- 
portunities to  increase  profits.  Still  there  are 
exceptions. 

You  may  be  getting  a  certain  line  of  trade  by 
shading  a  price  on  some  kind  of  goods.  There 
may  be  a  competitor  who  would  get  nine-tenths 
of  this  trade  if  you  all  asked  the  same  price. 
Your  location  may  be  such  that  you  must  make 
an  inducement  to  people  to  get  them  to  come  to 
your  store.  There  may  be  a  line  of  goods  that 
you  can  buy  more  cheaply  than  the  other  fellows 
can  buy  them,  and  by  buying  in  this  way  and 
giving  the  public  the  benefit  of  the  lower  cost 
you  may  be  getting  under  the  belt  of  the  com- 
petitors. Can  you  afford  to  lose  this  advantage  ? 
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Store  Management — Complete 

The  advantages  of  higher  prices  are  obvious,  but 
the  disadvantages  are  equally  obvious  and  should 
be  well  considered  before  entering  into  any  agree- 
ment to  your  own  detriment. 

As  a  rule,  and  the  rule  has  few  exceptions,  the 
even  price  all  over  town  results  to  the  advantage 
of  the  stores  that  have  the  best  location.  The 
people  trade  here  or  there  or  somewhere  else  be- 
cause there  is  an  inducement  of  some  sort,  a 
reason  for  their  doing  so.  Be  careful  about  re- 
moving any  of  the  reasons  for  people  trading 
with  you. 

Do  you  deliver  goods?  Do  you  do  it  because 
you  have  to  do  so  or  because  you  consider  it  a 
good  policy?  If  you  are  willing  to  do  it,  do  it 
whenever  people  ask  it.  Make  it  a  point  to  de- 
liver to  everyone  in  town  with  equal  good  grace. 
Go  out  of  your  way  to  accommodate  as  many 
people  in  this  way  as  you  can.  When  people 
come  in  loaded  down  with  purchases  made  in 
other  stores  and  buy  other  things  from  you,  offer 
to  deliver  the  whole  lot.  Make  your  delivering 
a  part  of  the  business  that  you  can  do  cheerfully, 
and  if  you  can't  do  it  cheerfully,  don't  do  it  at 
all.  No  one  wants  to  be  the  recipient  of  any- 
thing that  can  be  construed  as  a  begrudged  favor. 

Nowadays  the  public  expect  to  have  their  pur- 
chases delivered  to  their  door.  Whatever  you 
1 08 


Store  Management — Complete 

have  to  sell,  it  will  pay  you  to  deliver  it  and  if 
it  is  possible  to  figure  out  a  basis  upon  which 
you  can  deliver  out  of  town  purchases,  that  will 
pay,  too.  The  price  "  at  your  door  "  makes  it 
plain  what  the  entire  cost  of  owning  the  goods 
will  be. 

The  small  store  in  competition  with  a  depart- 
ment store  finds  it  practically  a  necessity  to  de- 
liver because  its  bigger  neighbor  does  it  and  it 
cannot  compete  except  upon  even  terms.  It  may 
be  that  delivery  costs  more  than  the  small  dealer 
can  pay.  Then  let  him  make  a  virtue  of  neces- 
sity and  give  a  little  better  price  or  a  non-deliv- 
ery rebate  check  which  will  make  it  an  object 
for  people  to  take  their  own  goods  home. 

Policy  in  this  direction,  as  in  all  others,  must 
be  made  to  fit  the  locality.  Different  localities 
require  different  policies.  The  methods  that  will 
be  good  in  Medicine  Hat  will  not  suit  the  people 
of  Tuscaloosa  and  vice  versa.  The  manager  of 
a  store  before  changing  a  policy,  or  before  adopt- 
ing one,  should  consider  well  the  class  of  trade 
he  is  after  and  the  manner  of  community  in 
which  he  is  doing  business.  This  condition 
makes  it  rather  hard  for  a  man  to  start  a  store 
in  another  town  and  fit  himself  and  his  business 
to  the  needs  of  that  locality  at  once. 

They  say  that  no  one  should  buy  real  estate  as 
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Store  Management — Complete 

an  investment  in  a  place  until  he  has  lived  in  its 
vicinity  for  at  least  ten  years.  On  the  same  prin- 
ciple no  man  can  really  consider  that  he  is  safe  in 
buying  a  business  in  a  totally  unknown  town  just 
because  the  business  itself  is  a  profitable  one. 
Under  the  direction  of  a  man  unfamiliar  with 
the  town  and  its  habits  and  requirements  the 
same  store  might  go  down. 

There  is  a  custom  of  rebating  to  out  of  town 
customers  all  or  a  part  of  their  railroad  fare 
which  has  proved  to  be  a  good  deal  of  a  success 
in  most  places  where  it  has  been  tried.  A  policy 
of  this  kind  will  sometimes  make  trouble  with  the 
local  trade  unless  handled  carefully.  People  who 
live  in  the  village  may  be  inclined  to  think  that 
they  ought  to  be  accorded  as  much  favor  as  is 
shown  outsiders.  There  is  something  in  the  idea, 
but  usually  if  the  merchants  are  working  to- 
gether in  the  matter  of  rebates,  and  they  ought 
to  do  so,  it  is  possible  to  educate  the  public  to 
believe  that  this  rebate  system  is  done  for  the 
general  good  of  the  town  in  the  way  of  bringing 
in  outside  business  that  would  otherwise  go  to 
other  villages  and  on  this  basis  it  should  not  be 
taken  up  by  local  residents  and  used  as  a  handle 
to  a  claim  for  favors  to  them. 

A  good  policy  means  a  popular  store.  A  neg- 
no 


Store  Management — Complete 

lect  of  policy,  allowing  it  to  take  care  of  itself, 
means  a  neglect  of  the  very  things  that  go  to 
make  a  store  grow.  A  business  grows  by  what 
it  feeds  upon  and  it  feeds  to  quite  an  extent  upon 
its  policy. 

The  merchant  who  is  uncertain  as  to  the  wise 
policy  to  pursue  in  a  stated  case  should  study 
the  means  taken  by  other  merchants.  He  should 
study  the  policies  of  the  stores  he  knows  to  be 
successful,  peering  into  their  intricacies  and 
reasoning  out  their  whys  and  wherefores. 

The  proper  study  for  merchants  is  merchan- 
dising. The  way  to  find  out  what  policies  will 
be  popular  is  to  try  them  and  see  how  they 
strike  the  public.  But  as  this  method  has  the  ob- 
vious disadvantage  of  making  the  business  suffer 
from  the  mistaken  policies,  the  better  plan  is  to 
study  policies  as  tried  by  someone  else  and  take 
for  your  own  only  those  that  prove  successful 
with  someone  else. 

A  store  policy  is  not  an  abstract  thing,  intangi- 
ble and  hard  to  define.  It  should  be  a  clearly 
outlined  plan  of  action  in  the  handling  of  the 
routine  problems  of  the  business  and  its  rules 
and  regulations  ought  to  be  laid  down  in  so  many 
words  so  that  there  can  be  no  mistake  when  the 
time  for  action  arrives. 

in 


Store  Management — Complete 

This  policy  should  cover  every  department  of 
management,  of  advertising,  of  treatment  of  help, 
of  treatment  of  customers.  It  should  be  compre- 
hensive and  detailed  and  it  should  be  lived  up  to. 


112 


UNIVERSITY 
or 


fl 


J 


Don't   be   cajoled  into    buying  goods   for   which 
there  is  no  demand. — See  page  76. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CLERK    MANAGEMENT 

There  are  many  men  who  are  good  store  man- 
agers in  every  respect  save  one  —  that  of  clerk 
handling. 

When  a  merchant  falls  down  in  the  matter  of 
handling  help  he  falls  down  in  a  most  impor- 
tant particular,  because  the  clerk  link  is  the  most 
important  link  in  the  chain  of  store  management, 
and  a  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link. 

The  clerk  stands  between  the  proprietor  and 
the  public.  The  proprietor  may  do  everything  in 
his  power  to  get  people  into  the  store.  He  may 
be  a  first  class  advertiser.  He  may  be  a  good 
mixer.  He  may  be  personally  popular.  He  may 
carry  just  the  right  line  of  goods  and  mark  them 
at  the  most  attractive  prices,  but  if  the  clerks  are 
not  right,  people  will  not  come  back  to  that  store 
a  second  time  except  under  protest. 

There  are  as  many  kinds  of  clerks  as  there  are 

men,  but  they  all  belong  to  two  general  classes ; 

the  kind  you 'want  and  the  kind  that  you  don't 

want.     The  great  difficulty  is  to  tell  before  it 

1*3 


Store  Management — Complete 

is  too  late  just  which  men  are  the  ones  you 
want. 

There  are  no  end  of  clerks  looking  for  posi- 
tions. In  fact,  most  clerks  are  looking  for  posi- 
tions. The  good  man  is  not  averse  to  finding 
something  better  and  the  poor  man  is  always  look- 
ing for  a  job  as  a  matter  of  principle  (or  lack 
of  it). 

You  can  find  plenty  of  men  who  are  reasonably 
honest,  who  will  work  full  time  and  do  most  of 
the  things  they  are  told  to  do  so  long  as  you  keep 
telling  them,  and  who  will  draw  their  pay  regu- 
larly. 

These  men  are  not  much  of  a  disadvantage  to 
a  store.  They  do  not  send  people  away  by  reason 
of  any  pronounced  deficiencies,  but  they  never 
develop  into  positive  assets.  The  kind  of  clerks 
a  man  wants  is  the  kind  that  is  not  satisfied  to 
do  no  particular  wrong.  He  wants  men  who  con- 
tinually go  out  of  their  way  to  do  some  particu- 
lar right. 

The  merchant  may  be  lucky  to  get  clerks  that 
are  sober,  reliable  and  honest,  but  he  should 
never  be  satisfied  with  that.  He  should  make  it 
his  endeavor  to  surround  himself  with  employes 
who  are  all  of  that  and  ambitious  beside. 

The  ambitious  clerk,  if  he  is  wise,  will  have  his 
employer's  interest  at  heart  because  he  will  re- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

alize  that  the  better  work  he  does  for  the  store, 
the  greater  will  be  his  chances  of  advancement 
either  in  his  present  position  or  to  some  better 
one.  The  ambitious  clerk  will  be  ambitious  to  be 
associated  with  success,  knowing  that  he  will 
share  directly  in  that  success  and  indirectly  as 
well.  He  will  receive  increased  wages  where 
there  is  success,  because  the  store  can  afford  to 
pay  more,  and  it  can  particularly  afford  to  pay 
more  to  the  men  who  make  it  a  success.  He 
will  be  discovered  by  outsiders  to  be  a  part  of  the 
store's  success,  a  maker  of  success  himself,  and 
he  will  be  sought  by  merchants  who  have  some- 
thing better  for  him  than  he  is  already  getting. 

Some  stores  have  too  many  clerks.  There  is 
not  enough  work  to  keep  them  busy  and  they  ac- 
quire habits  of  laziness  and  they  lose  ambition 
because  there  is  not  enough  for  their  ambition 
to  feed  upon. 

If  a  store  has  more  clerks  than  are  ever  all 
busy  at  once,  it  certainly  has  too  many.  More 
business  is  needed  or  less  clerks.  The  clerks 
that  never  have  to  hustle  forget  how.  At  any 
rate  they  lose  any  inclination  to  do  so.  And  from 
that  it  is  only  a  step  to  the  feeling  that  no  one 
has  any  right  to  ask  them  to  hustle. 

It  is  very  hard  to  tell  from  a  man's  appearance 
just  what  sort  of  a  clerk  he  will  make.  Every 


Store  Management — Complete 

merchant  has  had  applicants  come  to  him  who 
looked  like  just  what  he  wanted,  only  to  find 
after  a  few  weeks  that  they  were  of  little  use. 

First  impressions  are  often  wrong  impressions. 
The  man  who  can  judge  men  upon  sight  is  a  rare 
article.  The  applicant  is  at  his  best  when  he  is 
asking  for  a  position.  If  he  cannot  get  himself 
up  to  seem  presentable  then  it  is  probable  that 
he  never  can,  although  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  there  are  men  whose  tongues  become  tied 
when  they  are  called  upon  to  sound  their  own 
praises.  They  are  few  and  far  between,  how- 
ever. 

Beware  of  the  man  who  protests  too  much  and 
of  the  man  who  seems  to  have  no  flaw  in  his 
character.  No  one  is  perfect  and  he  who  seems 
perfect  is  deceptive  in  some  particular.  All 
coins  are  bright  when  new,  whether  they  be  coun- 
terfeit or  government  minted.  And  all  new 
brooms  are  entitled  to  sweep  clean.  The  new 
clerk  is  not  necessarily  a  "  find  "  because  he  does 
well  the  first  week.  Give  him  a  month  at  least 
before  you  can  tell  your  friends  what  a  wonder 
he  is. 

While  selling  ability  is  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant thing  to  consider  in  hiring  a  man  — 
after  finding  him  to  be  honest  and  reliable  — 
still  there  are  other  qualities  which  merit  atten- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

tion.  Courteous  handling  of  customers,  stock- 
keeping  ability,  personal  appearance ;  all  these 
count  and  are  to  be  considered.  A  man  may  be 
too  good  a  salesman.  It  is  possible  for  a  clerk 
to  be  so  disposed  to  load  up  customers  that  he 
works  a  disadvantage  to  the  store. 

As  to  wages,  there  is  no  definite  rule  of  course. 
Where  the  salary  is  a  stipulated  sum  without 
commissions,  "  P.  M.s  "  or  percentages,  the  lo- 
cality, custom  of  the  town,  cost  of  living  there, 
etc.,  all  influence  the  figure.  It  is  estimated  by 
many  experienced  merchants  that  the  cost  of 
mere  selling  is  about  five  per  cent.  Some  make 
it  more,  even  up  to  seven  per  cent.  Some  firms 
which  place  their  employes  on  a  strict  percentage 
basis,  pay  men  seven  and  girls  six  per  cent,  and 
find  this  a  fair  basis. 

It  is  not  good  policy  for  a  store  to  be  stingy 
with  its  clerks,  either  in  matters  of  money  or 
time.  Two  parties  to  any  business  arrangement 
will  get  along  better  if  there  is  a  mutual  spirit  of 
generosity.  The  clerks  will  be  pretty  apt  to  re- 
ciprocate if  the  management  shows  a  tendency 
toward  this  kind  of  a  spirit.  If  the  management 
acts  the  other  way,  the  clerks  will  certainly  ex- 
hibit a  tendency  in  the  same  direction. 

Clerks  are  human,  just  as  you  are,  and  have  the 
same  or  greater  capacity  for  enjoying  life,  and 
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Store  Management — Complete 

they  appreciate  opportunities  of  that  kind.  Also 
they  are  no  more  steam  engines  than  you  are, 
and  that  being  the  case,  there  are  days  when  they 
ought  not  to  work,  when  it  is  a  detriment  to  them 
and  consequently  to  the  store.  Unless  it  is  ab- 
solutely imperative  that  a  man  be  on  duty,  the 
store  will  make  more  money  if  he  lays  off  the 
day  he  is  not  able  to  do  good  work  than  it  will  if 
he  works,  and  this  applies  to  the  proprietor  and 
to  the  clerk  alike. 

See  that  your  clerks  have  a  chance  to  let  head- 
quarters know  when  they  are  not  fit  to  work  and 
see  that  they  are  given  the  benefit  of  any  doubt 
in  the  matter  and  allowed  to  lay  off  if  they  seern 
to  need  to  do  so.  Of  course  the  store  manage- 
ment will  find  some  clerks  who  will  take  ad- 
vantage of  this  attitude,  and  such  help  should  be 
passed  on  to  someone  else,  but  it  is  profitable  to 
take  the  clerk's  word  until  it  has  been  proved 
false. 

If  you  employ  many  girls,  have  a  rest  room 
for  them  and  let  them  use  it.  An  hour  of  rest 
now  is  better  than  all  day  off  to-morrow.  And 
an  hour  of  rest  when  it  is  needed  means  far  bet- 
ter service  after  taking  it.  Better  service  be- 
cause of  the  physical  rest  and  better  service 
because  the  clerk  appreciates  the  privilege  and 
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Store  Management — Complete 

feels  a  greater  interest  in  the  store  on  account 
of  it. 

The  store  with  many  employes  can  support  the 
rest  room  and  the  store  with  too  few  hands  to 
make  that  desirable  can  keep  in  close  enough 
touch  with  each  one  to  see  that  no  one  works  who 
is  unable  to  work  well. 

Don't  try  to  discourage  a  clerk  the  first  day  or 
week  in  the  way  the  old-fashioned  merchant  used 
to  do.  It  used  to  be  the  thing  to  set  the  green 
hand  at  the  dirtiest  jobs  in  the  store  and  try  to 
make  life  a  burden  just  to  see  what  stuff  he  was 
made  of.  Of  course  the  man  who  comes  through 
serene  and  smiling  is  probably  a  good  man, 
though  not  necessarily  so.  But  many  a  man  who 
might  have  made  good  may  be  spoiled  or  discour- 
aged or  given  an  ill  feeling  toward  his  employer 
by  such  treatment. 

Start  a  clerk  at  work  that  will  average  with 
his  regular  routine.  Help  him  all  you  can  and 
encourage  him  rather  than  the  contrary.  He  will 
think  more  of  you,  more  of  himself  and  more  of 
his  job. 

There  is  still  an  inclination  upon  the  part  of 

some  employers  to  try  to  get  the  most  possible 

work  out  of  clerks   by  browbeating  them   and 

making  them  afraid  of  their  employer.     This  is 

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Store  Management — Complete 

all  wrong  and  it  will  not  work  now  —  if  indeed 
it  ever  did  work  to  advantage. 

Clerks  and  employers  should  be  friends  with 
a  common  interest  and  a  feeling  of  freedom  in 
talking  over  the  business  and  its  varied  phases 
and  conditions.  Will  a  clerk  who  is  afraid  of 
his  employer  ever  go  to  him  with  an  idea  for  the 
improvement  of  the  store  or  its  methods? 
Never.  He  will  get  along  with  just  about  what 
he  finds  it  absolutely  necessary  for  him  to  do 
and  no  more. 

Suggestions  from  clerks  may  be  inopportune 
or  ill  advised  or  they  may  be  timely  and  valua- 
ble. It  does  not  matter.  They  should  be  re- 
ceived with  interest  and  courtesy  when  offered. 
The  fact  that  an  employee  offers  a  suggestion 
for  the  betterment  of  the  business  shows  that  that 
employee  is  interested  enough  to  give  his  work 
thought  beyond  the  bare  necessity  of  the  duties 
he  performs. 

The  clerks  of  to-day  must  be  the  merchants  of 
to-morrow,  and  according  as  they  take  an  inter- 
est in  learning  their  work  and  in  trying  to  learn 
how  that  work  may  be  done  to  better  advantage 
the  business  methods  of  to-morrow  will  be  im- 
proved over  those  of  to-day. 

Have  a  system  in  the  hiring  and  treatment  of 
employes  and  adhere  to  it.  The  store  rules 
1 20 


Store  Management — Complete 

should  be  obeyed  by  all.  Exceptions  open  the 
management  to  the  charge  of  favoritism  and 
make  discontented  members  of  the  force.  Give 
a  fair  hearing  to  all  complaints  from  the  clerks 
and  encourage  them  to  come  to  headquarters 
with  their  grievances  in  order  that  they  may  be 
settled  properly.  Oftentimes  a  disgruntled  clerk 
goes  about  spreading  dissatisfaction  and  doing 
harm  when  five  minutes'  talk  with  him  would 
make  everything  all  right.  And  to  allow  a  clerk 
to  leave  your  employ  with  ill  feeling  toward  you 
is  to  have  someone  go  out  who  will  be  an  enemy 
to  the  store  and  take  away  trade. 

There  is  no  help  quite  as  expensive  as  cheap 
help.  One  cannot  expect  or  ask  first  class  serv- 
ice of  incompetent  and  ill  paid  help.  A  well 
paid  clerk  should  be  a  competent  clerk  and  he 
should  be  called  upon  for  first  class  service. 
There  is  some  little  justification  for  the  under- 
paid man  who  kicks  at  being  asked  to  work  over- 
time or  to  do  things  for  which  he  is  not  paid, 
though  the  well  paid  clerk  has  no  such  excuse  for 
shortcomings. 

Of  course  a  poor  clerk  cannot  be  made  into  a 
good  one  by  better  pay.  It  must  be  in  the  man 
to  do  good  work  or  the  salary  will  not  get  it  out, 
but  any  man  will  work  better  if  paid  a  fair  wage. 
No  man  will  be  even  reasonably  contented  in  a 
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Store  Management — Complete 

position  where  he  is  underpaid.  Underpaid  does 
not  mean  paid  less  than  he  earns,  for  the  mer- 
chant must  make  a  profit  upon  his  employes'  work 
just  as  much  as  upon  his  goods,  otherwise  they 
are  of  no  advantage  to  him.  They  must  sell 
goods  to  an  amount  that  they  will  pay  a  net  profit 
greater  than  their  wages  for  selling  them. 

The  proprietor  to  a  great  extent  sets  the  pace 
for  his  clerks.  Slow  boss,  slow  clerks,  probably 
slower  clerks.  Energy  and  enthusiasm  are  very 
contagious.  A  clerk  cannot  catch  them  from 
someone  who  does  not  have  them. 

The  proprietor  who  is  always  late  in  the  morn- 
ing, who  loafs  in  with  a  cigar  in  his  mouth  and 
his  hair  rough  and  a  couple  of  days'  growth  of 
beard,  who  instead  of  going  to  work  settles  down 
in  a  comfortable  chair  and  proceeds  to  waste  a 
half  hour  of  the  best  time  in  the  day,  will  not 
be  an  inspiring  example  for  his  help. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  use  in  trying 
to  fool  the  clerks  into  thinking  you  are  rushed  to 
death  by  taking  off  your  coat  and  rolling  up  your 
sleeves  and  prancing  up  and  down  the  store 
aisles,  making  a  great  bluff  and  bluster,  but  ac- 
complishing nothing. 

You  have  your  kind  of  work  pretty  well  out- 
lined and  your  clerks  know  that  there  is  no  more 
work  in  managing  a  store  than  mere  manual 
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Store  Management — Complete 

labor.  Sit  down  at  the  desk  the  first  thing,  if 
you  belong  there,  and  dig  in.  Don't  wait  to  feel 
more  like  it.  Set  an  example  of  industry.  It 
will  have  its  effect. 

There  is  a  good  deal  in  having  confidence  in  a 
clerk's  ability  to  make  good.  It  is  much  easier 
to  help  a  man  when  you  think  your  assistance 
will  have  some  results.  If  you  start  a  clerk  in 
with  the  idea  that  he  will  never  amount  to  any- 
thing, he  probably  never  will.  You  will  be  un- 
fairly prejudiced  against  him  from  the  start. 
You  will  scarcely  give  him  a  fair  show.  If  you 
have  doubts  about  a  man,  don't  hire  him.  But 
if  you  do  hire  him,  make  up  your  mind  that  you 
can  make  something  out  of  him  and  then  do  it. 

The  clerk  looking  for  a  position  has  just  as 
much  reason  to  want  to  find  a  desirable  employer 
as  the  employer  has  to  want  to  find  a  good  clerk. 
You  can  easily  get  the  reputation  of  being  a  hard 
man  to  work  for.  This  will  work  a  hardship  in 
two  ways.  It  will  make  good  men  avoid  your 
store  and  you  will  have  to  hire  inferior  help,  and 
it  will  make  your  help  ready  and  anxious  to  leave 
and  that  will  result  in  frequent  changes. 

Customers    like    to    do    business   with   people 

whom   they   know.     The    frequent   changing   of 

clerks  makes  all  strange  faces  in  your  store  and 

makes  shopping  there  less  pleasant  from  the  cus- 

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Store  Management — Complete 

tomer's  point  of  view  and  less  profitable  from 
your  own.  It  makes  the  management  of  the 
store  harder,  too,  as  you  yourself  know.  The 
less  you  change  clerks,  the  better  all  around,  pro- 
vided you  have  a  force  that  is  reasonably  effi- 
cient. 

Of  course  one  may  keep  a  clerk  too  long. 
Clerks  often  reach  a  point  where  they  lose  their 
value  because  they  have  been  in  one  place  long 
enough.  They,  in  a  way,  go  stale.  They  have 
done  you  all  the  good  they  can.  They  get  rest- 
less. They  think  they  know  more  about  their 
work  than  their  employer  knows.  They  become 
hard  to  manage.  They  need  to  make  a  change 
for  their  own  as  well  as  for  their  employer's 
good.  When  a  clerk  gets  to  that  point,  help  him 
to  make  a  change  for  his  own  advantage  and  he 
will  remain  a  friend  to  you  and  to  the  store  and 
you  will  have  done  a  good  deed. 

A  clerk  naturally,  if  he  is  any  good  at  all, 
wants  some  day  to  become  a  proprietor  himself. 
The  better  work  he  does  for  you,  the  better  work 
he  will  be  able  to  do  for  himself.  There  are 
employers  who  will  discourage  a  clerk  in  such 
aspirations  because  he  is  a  good  clerk  and  they 
do  not  want  to  lose  him.  They  make  a  great 
mistake.  Help  a  clerk  to  plan  for  getting  into 
business  for  himself  —  in  another  locality  of 
124 


Store  Management — Complete 

f 
course.     Take  an  interest  in  his  plans.     He  will 

leave  you  some  day,  anyway,  and  you  might  as 
well  make  a  friend  of  him  and  thus  make  him 
worth  more  to  you  while  at  the  same  time  you  do 
a  Christian  deed. 

Among  the  little  things  that  are  important  in 
the  treatment  of  clerks  is  the  matter  of  the  pay- 
ing of  wages.  When  a  clerk's  wages  are  duer 
they  are  his  and  he  is  entitled  to  them.  He  ought 
not  to  have  to  wait  for  them.  Pay  every  em- 
ployee when  the  payday  comes  around  and  thus 
avoid  any  cause  for  dissatisfaction.  A  -clerk 
who  does  not  get  his  money  when  he  expected 
it  and  wanted  to  use  it  may  do  the  store  a  good 
deal  of  harm  and  may  affect  the  credit  of  the 
owner  by  the  things  he  will  say  or  hint  to  his 
friends. 

You  have  a  right  to  know  what  a  clerk  does 
with  himself  outside  of  business  hours.  Not 
that  his  time  is  in  any  sense  yours  then,  but  when 
you  hire  a  man  you  are  entitled  to  his  best  serv- 
ices, and  if  he  is  doing  things  outside  of  the 
store  that  unfit  him  to  serve  you  well  inside,  he 
should  be  talked  to  for  his  own  sake  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  business.  It  is  a  favorite  proclama- 
tion of  a  clerk  that  as  long  as  he  does  his  work 
it  is  none  of  his  employer's  business  what  he 
does  in  his  own  time.  It  is  the  attitude  of  many 
125 


Store  Management — Complete 

merchants  that  they  do  not  care  what  a  clerk  does 
as  long  as  he  does  his  work  the  way  they  want  it 
done.  They  say  "  He  can  booze  or  gamble  or  do 
anything  he  wants  to  do  and  it's  no  business  of 
mine."  That  is  not  true.  We  are  trusting 
clerks  to  handle  our  money.  All  the  money  we 
get  for  our  goods  is  what  the  clerks  give  us.  Do 
we  want  all  that  money  going  through  sticky 
fingers?  And  will  not  the  fingers  of  a  gambler 
be  sticky?  The  man  whose  habits  are  irregular 
and  dissipated,  will  he  not  need  money  at  some 
time?  His  principles  will  in  the  end  prove  no 
obstacle  to  his  helping  himself  to  his  employer's 
funds.  And  then  no  clerk  can  be  fast  or  do 
wrong  to  any  extent  without  people  knowing  it 
and  customers,  particularly  women,  will  not  feel 
like  doing  business  with  a  man  they  do  not  like, 
nor  will  they  trust  him  in  the  mere  matter  of  his 
statements  about  the  goods  they  are  buying. 

When  you  take  a  young  man  into  your  employ 
you  in  a  measure  become  responsible  for  him. 
You  assume  a  portion  of  the  guardianship  of 
him.  If  you  allow  him  to  do  things  that  you 
know  are  wrong,  you  are  not  living  up  to  your 
duty.  And  you  are  making  a  tactical  mistake  as 
well. 

Do  you  give  your  help  full  credit  for  the 
things  they  do  to  help  the  business  along?  If 
126 


Store  Management — Complete 

a  clerk  does  a  particularly  good  piece  of  work 
in  the  way  of  stock  arrangement  or  store  decora- 
tion, do  you  say  a  word  of  praise  to  encourage 
him  to  repeat  the  effort?  Or  do  you  take  it  all 
as  a  part  of  his  day's  work  and  let  it  go  at  that? 

Mankind,  and  womankind  too,  like  praise. 
Some  almost  live  upon  it.  Anyone,  you,  I,  all 
of  us,  like  to  be  appreciated.  We  like  to  have 
someone  compliment  the  work  we  do.  What  en- 
couragement is  there  in  doing  a  thing  well  if  it 
will  receive  no  more  attention  than  if  it  were 
done  ill?  Art  for  art's  sake  is  very  well  in 
theory,  but  it  is  mighty  unsatisfactory  in  prac- 
tice. It  will  pay  you  and  pay  you  well  in  real 
money  to  praise  your  help  whenever  you  can  find 
excuse  for  it.  There  is  something  commendable 
about  the  way  almost  anything  is  done  and  it  is 
better  to  comment  first  upon  the  good  features  of 
the  work  than  upon  the  others.  It  is  better,  any- 
way, to  pass  easily  over  the  faults  with  only  suf- 
ficient comment  to  make  the  workman  anxious 
to  correct  that  fault  next  time.  And  then  when 
it  comes  time  to  do  that  thing  again,  look  out  in 
advance  for  a  repetition  of  those  same  faults. 

Criticism  is  a  good  thing  in  its  place,  but  the 
man  who  criticises  habitually  forgets  how  to 
commend,  and  he  becomes  a  standing  discourage- 
ment to  anyone  to  try  to  do  things  right.  The 
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Store  Management — Complete 

man  whom  you  cannot  suit,  no  matter  how  well 
you  do,  is  bound  to  become  disliked. 

Of  course  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any 
proprietor  will  become  the  perfect  employer. 
Perfection  is  not  human.  But  many  faults  will 
be  avoided  with  care,  and  faults  are  no  more 
common  in  employes  than  in  employers.  The 
help  proposition  is  not  a  one-sided  one  by  any 
means. 

Whatever  you  do  in  remarking  upon  the  con- 
duct of  work  of  your  employes,  do  not  NAG 
them. 

A  nagging  employer  is  as  bad  as  a  nagging 
wife  and  probably  worse.  No  one  can  endure 
either  for  long  without  beginning  to  plan  how  to 
escape  from  the  mental  torment  of  the  situation. 
No  explanation  of  the  term  "  nag  "  is  necessary. 
It  is  understood  well  enough  even  by  the  people 
who  do  the  nagging.  You  may  be  a  nagger  with- 
out knowing  it.  Think  it  over  carefully  and  if 
you  find  yourself  in  doubt  about  it,  you  are  prob- 
ably guilty.  Cut  it  out ! 

The  way  in  which  the  money  of  the  store  is 
handled  is  a  matter  of  first  importance.  To  err 
is  human  and  all  humanity  makes  mistakes.  No 
matter  how  good  your  clerks  are  at  remember- 
ing, they  sometimes  forget.  No  matter  how  ac- 
curate a  man  is,  he  sometimes  makes  mistakes. 
128 


Are    you    setting    your    clerk    a    good    example? 
See  page  131. 


Store  Management — Complete 

You  make  them  yourself.  See  that  your  cash 
system  is  such  that  it  reduces  mistakes  to  the 
lowest  possible  figure.  This  is  not  an  advertise- 
ment for  anybody's  cash  system  or  for  any  cash 
register  or  any  other  appliance,  but  beyond  a 
doubt  some  mechanical  plan  will  help  to  eliminate 
mistakes.  And  when  it  comes  to  the  matter  of 
honesty  among  employes,  the  more  strict  the  sys- 
tem that  hedges  the  money,  the  better  for  the 
amount  of  the  receipts.  Then,  too,  the  employer 
owes  it  to  his  employes  to  protect  them  in  every 
possible  way  from  the  temptation  to  take  money 
not  their  own  and  to  protect  them  from  any  possi- 
ble suspicion  of  taking  money  when  they  have  not 
taken  it.  In  a  store  where  the  careless  plan  is 
followed,  if  money  is  gone,  every  employee  who 
had  access  to  it  is  eligible  to  suspicion. 

Get  a  careful  system  of  money  handling  and 
adhere  to  it. 

Thoughtlessness  on  the  part  of  the  employer 
is  the  cause  of  much  of  the  dissatisfaction  on 
the  part  of  the  clerks.  The  reason  why  clerks 
are  not  complimented  on  their  work,  or  are  left 
to  learn  things  for  themselves  instead  of  being 
instructed,  is  simply  thoughtlessness  on  the  part 
of  the  proprietor  in  many  cases.  He  knows  bet- 
ter, but  he  doesn't  do  as  well  as  he  knows.  It 
pays  a  business  man  to  do  the  best  he  knows  in 
129 


Store  Management — Complete 

regard  to  any  part  of  the  management  of  his 
business. 

Another  quality  that  makes  about  as  much 
trouble  as  thoughtlessness  in  the  matter  of  rela- 
tions between  proprietor  and  clerks  is  inconsis- 
tency. Inconsistency  leads  a  man  to  expect  his 
help  to  develop  virtues  which  he  himself  appar- 
ently scorns.  It  leads  him  to  form  habits  and 
develop  qualities  which  he  expects  his  help  to 
shun.  Employes  notice  such  inconsistencies  at 
once  and  they  are  scarcely  to  be  blamed  if  they 
do  not  take  the  straight  and  narrow  path  when 
the  one  who  is  their  natural  business  leader  goes 
the  other  way. 

The  suspicious  employer  is  another  sort  who  is 
apt  to  be  mighty  unpopular  with  his  clerks.  None 
of  us  likes  to  be  watched  or  suspected  all  the 
time  any  more  than  we  would  like  to  have  a  de- 
tective trailing  us  around.  Clerks  know  when 
the  "  old  man  "  is  watching  them  on  the  sly  and 
trying  to  find  out  things  about  them  without  their 
knowing  it. 

It  is  better  for  all  concerned  for  one  man  when 
he  thinks  he  has  a  grievance  against  another  to 
go  right  to  that  other  and  state  the  case  and  get 
to  the  bottom  of  the  matter  at  once.  Suspicions 
do  both  parties  an  injustice  and  injustice  has  no 
legitimate  standing  in  the  business  world  to-day. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

Frank  treatment  is  the  treatment  that  every 
right  minded  man  prefers.  No  wrong  can  be 
straightened  out  without  perfect  frankness  on 
both  sides.  Everything  open  and  above  board 
is  the  way  we  like  things  run.  That  leaves  no 
room  for  any  feeling  of  unfairness. 

Do  you  ever  give  a  thought  to  the  woman  be- 
hind the  man  in  your  employ?  For  every  mar- 
ried man  and  for  many  unmarried  men  at  work 
there  is  a  woman  at  home  anxious  to  have  that 
man  do  his  best  to  get  ahead. 

These  home  women  know  what  their  men's 
lives  are  like.  They  enter  into  the  details  of 
them  and  sympathize  with  them.  They  want 
their  men  to  do  better.  They  want  them  to  be 
employed  where  there  is  a  chance  for  advance- 
ment. Is  your  store  the  kind  of  a  store  to  enlist 
the  sympathies  of  those  women  at  home  and 
make  them  encourage  their  husbands  or  sons  to 
work  harder  for  the  business  and  even  work  for 
it  themselves  in  their  indirect  but  valuable  way  ? 

And  more  pertinently,  or  perhaps  more  im- 
pertinently, are  you  the  kind  of  a  man  those 
w.omen  want  their  men  to  work  for  and  with? 
Are  you  setting  them  the  kind  of  personal  ex- 
ample that  will  have  the  backing  of  the  wives? 
This  is  more  important  than  you  realize.  It  is 
vital. 


Store  Management — Complete 

You  cannot  take  the  attitude  that  every  man's 
private  life  is  his  own  business  and  that  you 
cannot  assume  any  responsibility  for  the  personal 
morals  of  your  clerks.  You  are  responsible  to 
them  and  to  their  families  if  you  do  anything 
that  will  have  an  inclination  to  send  their  bread- 
winners down  hill. 

Success  with  clerks  is  not  easy.  Success  of 
any  kind  is  not  easy.  It  comes  only  by  heeding 
the  small  necessities.  No  man  ever  grew  great 
by  attending  only  to  great  things.  No  great  man 
overlooks  the  fact  that  greatness  or  success  is 
made  up  of  small  particles  just  as  the  ocean  is 
made  up  of  drops  of  water.  "  Trifles  make  per- 
fection but  perfection  is  no  trifle/'  said  Michael 
Angelo. 

Of  course  an  employer  can  fritter  away  his 
time  in  utterly  unimportant  matters.  He  can 
become  a  putterer  but  this  is  not  the  same  thing 
as  paying  to  small  details  the  proportion  of  at- 
tention they  deserve. 

In  the  big  stores  nowadays  employes  are  sys- 
tematically instructed  in  their  duties,  in  the  qual- 
ities of  the  goods  they  are  to  sell,  in  the  policy 
of  the  store,  in  salesmanship  and  in  many  other 
directions. 

Too  often  in  the  smaller  store  they  are  taken 
in  and  told  certain  rudimentary  facts  and  then 
132 


Store  Management — Complete 

expected  to  watch  the  older  members  of  the  force 
and  learn  by  observation. 

An  observant  man  can  learn  a  good  deal  if  he 
pays  strict  attention  to  his  business.  But  even 
the  most  observant  could  learn  a  hundred  per 
cent,  quicker  if  given  instruction  in  a  sensible 
way  instead  of  by  the  haphazard  method. 

Have  a  plan  outlined.  Begin  with  the  simple 
rudiments.  Go  on  to  the  more  complicated  af- 
fairs. Show  the  clerk  what  kinds  of  things  hap- 
pen in  his  work  that  call  for  special  treatment. 
Give  him  concrete  examples  of  the  things  he 
will  be  called  upon  to  do.  Teach  him  salesman- 
ship by  actual  sales.  If  there  is  just  one  clerk, 
give  him  little  talks  on  storekeeping  and  if  there 
are  a  dozen  or  a  hundred,  give  them  talks  too. 
The  clerks  want  to  learn  to  do  their  work  better 
because  they  will  in  that  way  become  worth 
more  money  to  themselves.  You  want  them  to 
learn  because  they  will  then  become  more  valua- 
ble to  you. 

Furnish  your  employes  with  all  the  good  busi- 
ness literature  that  they  will  read.  Keep  a  shelf 
full  of  books  and  trade  journals  where  they  can 
get  at  it  and  do  all  you  can  to  interest  them  in 
reading  such  matter. 

The  man  with  few  clerks  can  talk  to  them 
himself  as  occasion  offers,  teaching  them  his 
133 


Store  Management — Complete 

methods  as  they  work  together.  The  man  with 
many  clerks  may  well  establish  a  system  of  some 
sort,  having  after-hours  meetings  with  short 
talks  by  himself  and  by  heads  of  departments 
or  by  outsiders,  with  a  question  box  or  any  other 
method  possible  for  exciting  interest. 

The  store  with  enough  employes  ought  to 
encourage  the  formation  of  some  kind  of  an  em- 
ployes' benefit  association  which  shall  be  pro- 
ductive of  both  pleasure  and  profit. 

Each  person  in  your  employ  has  some  par- 
ticular fitness  for  a  special  branch  of  the  work 
and  it  is  profitable  as  far  as  possible  for  the 
merchant  to  study  the  peculiarities  of  his  men 
and  try  to  fit  each  one  to  his  own  particular  niche. 

One  man  can  dress  windows  best.  Another 
has  a  knack  for  making  show  cards  while  still 
another  is  a  good  stock  keeper.  So  it  goes.  If 
the  window  dresser  is  kept  at  work  making  show 
cards  which  he  does  not  like  to  make  and  can- 
not make  well,  and  if  the  man  handy  with  the 
brush  is  never  allowed  to  make  a  card,  things 
will  be  at  odds  and  the  force  will  lack  a  good 
deal  of  getting  the  best  results. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  the  whole  force  will 
be  kept  in  a  state  of  turmoil  by  some  one  bel- 
ligerent spirit.  If  there  is  a  trouble  maker  in 
the  force  it  is  better  to  let  him  go,  no  matter 
134 


Store  Management — Complete 

what  his  ability  may  be  in  certain  ways.  Some 
clerks  have  the  power  of  keeping  their  associates 
discontented  even  while  doing  good  work  them- 
selves. There  must  be  harmony  and  a  united 
purpose  behind  the  clerk  force  if  it  is  to  work 
together. 

A  cheerful  man  is  a  constant  inspiration  to 
his  associates  and  the  man  with  a  grouch  gives 
everyone  he  meets  a  mental  down-hill  shove.  If 
you  are  going  to  get  the  best  out  of  your  clerks 
or  out  of  yourself  you  will  have  to  be  cheerful. 
Cheerful  clerks  do  their  work  twice  as  easily 
and  twice  as  well  as  clerks  that  are  perpetually 
disgruntled.  Customers  like  the  cheerful  store 
and  the  attitude  of  the  employer  toward  his  help 
is  pretty  apt  to  make  the  store  cheerful  or  the 
reverse,  according  as  the  clerks  are  reflecting  a 
cheerful  disposition  on  the  part  of  their  superiors 
or  nursing  a  grievance  which  has  been  fathered 
by  a  cross  look  or  word  from  headquarters. 

Optimism  will  spread  through  a  store  if  it  gets 
a  chance  just  as  gloom  will  spread.  Either  is 
"  catching."  The  head  of  a  store  can  to  a  large 
degree  determine  whether  his  store  is  to  exhibit 
the  optimistic  or  the  pessimistic  spirit.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  anyone's  mind  as  to  which  is  the 
more  profitable  or  the  more  pleasant. 

Treat  clerks  in  the  way  you  would  like  to  be 
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Store  Management — Complete 

treated  if  you  yourself  were  a  clerk  —  not  in 
the  way  you  might  have  chosen  when  you  were 
a  clerk  for  at  that  time  your  judgment  might 
have  called  for  more  leniency  and  easier  times 
than  would  have  been  to  your  advantage  —  but 
in  the  way  you  would  wish  to  be  treated  if  you 
were  a  clerk  now,  possessing  a  desire  to  get 
ahead  in  every  way  that  would  result  to  your 
permanent  advantage.  This  kind  of  treatment 
can  have  but  one  result  and  that  will  be  the 
making  of  a  more  useful,  valuable  and  contented 
force  of  employes. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LEAKS 

They  say  that  "  It's  the  little  leaks  that  swamp 
the  ship."  That  may  or  may  not  be  true.  I 
don't  know  anything  about  ships,  but  when  it 
comes  to  shops  I  believe  that  the  adage  holds 
good  in  a  very  large  percentage  of  instances. 

The  big  leak,  the  large  expense  that  is  evident 
on  the  face  of  it,  keeps  one  looking  after  it.  It 
is  so  obvious  that  it  cannot  be  ignored,  even  if 
one  would  like  to  ignore  it.  It  works  so  quickly 
that  the  business  must  either  correct  it  or  yield 
to  it  at  once. 

The  little  leak  is  insidious.  It  keeps  drawing 
off  the  surplus,  the  profits,  day  in  and  day  out 
without  anyone  knowing  where  those  profits 
have  gone.  The  large  expenses  are  considered 
and  as  many  or  as  much  of  them  as  possible 
eliminated.  The  little  leaks,  though,  that  are  in 
out-of-sight  corners  are  not  noticed  or  if  they 
are  noticed  they  are  not  considered  worth  cor- 
recting. 

The  reason  that  these  little  leaks  are  consid- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

ered  unimportant  is  largely  because  they  are  con- 
sidered singly.  The  merchant  says  of  each  one, 
"  Oh,  that  amount  is  too  small  to  amount  to  any- 
thing. I  could  lose  that  sum  every  year  forever 
and  it  wouldn't  amount  to  enough  to  make  any 
real  difference  with  my  financial  condition." 

The  way  to  find  out  what  the  little  leaks  are 
doing  to  you  is  to  hunt  them  up  one  by  one  and 
set  them  down  in  a  long  column  and  add  up 
their  total.  It  is  the  total  that  tells  the  story 
and  that  will  surprise  the  average  merchant. 

You  think  you  know  what  your  running  ex- 
penses are,  but  do  you?  Can  you  make  your 
figures  at  the  end  of  the  year  come  out  to  a  per- 
fect balance  showing  just  exactly  how  much  you 
have  made  (or  lost)  and  where? 

If  you  can,  you  are  a  rare  exception.  There 
are  mighty  few  merchants  who  don't  have  to 
make  a  special  item  to  put  into  the  annual  state- 
ment of  their  affairs  to  cover  a  shortage  or 
shrinkage  that  is  not  accounted  for  in  any  of  the 
regular  items. 

I  know  of  a  firm  doing  a  good  sized  business 
in  a  small  city  who  found  that  while  their  figures 
showed  an  ostensible  net  profit  last  year  of  some 
ten  per  cent,  above  all  expenses  including  sal- 
aries of  members  of  the  firm,  etc.,  they  could 

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Store  Management — Complete 

not  produce  money  to  show  more  than  eight  per 
cent. 

There  were  leaks  that  they  could  not  locate. 

They  sent  for  a  business  expert  who  came  in 
and,  at  a  cost  to  them  of  $200  a  week  and  ex- 
penses, put  in  a  system  that  enables  them  this 
year  to  tell  at  the  end  of  each  month  just  how 
much  money  they  have  made  that  month  on  each 
line  of  goods  in  the  store  —  and  they  still  have 
some  undiscovered  leaks. 

There  is  no  one  who  can  discover  little  leaks 
in  a  business  as  well  as  the  proprietor  —  if  he 
will  be  honest  with  himself  and  recognize  and 
admit  the  leaks  when  he  finds  them.  Nothing 
is  too  small  to  be  passed  by.  Every  item  that 
draws  on  the  profits  should  go  into  the  list  and 
be  added  into  the  total.  Every  expense  that  need 
not  have  been  is  a  leak,  a  drain  on  the  net  profit. 

What  are  these  leaks  that  are  liable  to  make 
trouble  for  you  ?  Well,  it  stands  to  reason  that 
you  can  find  them  better  than  anyone  else  but  I 
am  going  to  point  out  some  of  the  corners  into 
which  you  may  well  look  for  them. 

Begin  right  out  in  front  of  the  store,  with  the 
awning.  If  your  store  uses  an  awning,  it  pre- 
sumably uses  it  as  a  protection  against  the  direct 
sunlight.  The  awning  manufacturers  know  that 
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Store  Management — Complete 

not  one  merchant  in  ten  knows  how  to  or  at 
least  does  take  proper  care  of  his  awnings. 

He  leaves  them  down  in  the  rain  needlessly. 
He  does  not  see  that  they  are  rolled  up  tight 
enough  to  keep  the  water  and  the  sparrows  out 
of  them.  When  a  small  tear  starts,  he  lets  it  rip 
into  a  big  one.  If  his  wife  took  that  kind  of 
care  of  his  shirts,  he  would  get  a  divorce  right 
away. 

If  you  want  to  use  the  awning,  for  instance, 
as  many  grocers  do  to  keep  rain  off  from  goods 
shown  out  in  front  of  the  store,  then  you  can  do 
nothing  but  let  it  get  wet  and  dry,  or  frozen,  at 
the  will  of  the  weather. 

But  if  there  is  no  need  of  getting  it  wet,  keep 
it  dry.  If  it  happens  to  get  wet,  see  that  it  is 
properly  dried  before  being  rolled  up  and  left 
to  mildew  and  rot  and  streak.  When  it  is  rolled 
up,  see  that  it  is  rolled  clear  up  under  the  cornice 
and  see  that  there  is  enough  cornice  to  protect  it 
from  the  storm. 

If  the  awning  looks  shabby  it  detracts  from 
the  appearance  of  your  store  front,  no  matter 
how  handsome  the  windows  may  be.  Keep  it 
looking  as  well  as  you  can  as  long  as  you  can. 
It  will  pay  in  making  your  store  more  attractive 
on  the  outside  and  it  will  pay  in  saving  your 
awning  bills. 

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Store  Management — Complete 

Inside  of  the  store  the  kind  of  equipment  and 
the  treatment  of  it  make  a  great  difference  in 
the  length  of  time  the  furniture  lasts  and  in  the 
way  it  protects  goods  from  injury. 

Lack  of  equipment  in  the  way  of  suitable  show 
cases  to  protect  stock  from  the  dirt  and  too 
much  handling  means  a  steady  and  very  appre- 
ciable loss  in  depreciation  of  value.  There  is  no 
imagination  about  this. 

There  are  some  goods  which  sell  so  much  bet- 
ter when  kept  out  where  people  can  pick  them 
up  and  examine  them  at  will  that  keeping  them 
in  cases  is  out  of  the  question,  though  such  goods 
are  usually  put  up  in  such  form  that  damage 
from  exposure  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  There 
are  other  goods  that  must  be  covered  up  and 
these  goods  must  be  covered  in  such  a  way  that 
they  will  still  be  as  open  as  possible  to  inspec- 
tion. 

Goods  that  do  contribute  a  decided  loss  when 
exposed  will  sell  so  much  more  slowly  if  they 
cannot  be  properly  displayed  under  cover  that 
they  will  drop  back  several  laps  in  salability.  The 
point  that  requires  attention  is  the  necessity  for 
determining  where  protection  becomes  too  ef- 
ficient and  begins  to  reduce  self-selling  power 
unnecessarily. 

Nowadays  there  are  special  display  fixtures  for 
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Store  Management — Complete 

all  lines  of  goods  that  you  carry.  Show  cases 
are  made  to  fit  the  goods  so  that  they  will  show 
up  each  feature  to  the  best  advantage.  The 
cases  are  also  arranged  to  combine  with -this  dis- 
play properly  the  greatest  amount  of  automatic 
care  of  the  stock  in  them. 

The  lack  of  proper  fixtures  produces  various 
kinds  of  expenses  and  losses.  It  causes  depre- 
ciation of  stock.  It  causes  loss  of  time  in  the 
extra  amount  of  care  needed  to  keep  the  stock  in 
good  condition.  It  makes  stock-taking  harder 
and  increases  the  chances  of  ordering  goods  al- 
ready in  stock.  And  very  important;  it  makes 
the  goods  sell  more  slowly. 

If  you  have  any  extra  money  that  you  are 
willing  to  put  into  your  business,  you  cannot  in- 
vest it  in  any  way  to  make  it  produce  better  divi- 
dends than  it  will  bring  if  spent  for  new  special 
fixtures. 

I  advise  you  to  look  through  the  advertising 
pages  of  trade  journals  carefully  and  note  and 
answer  with  an  inquiry  any  advertisements  re- 
garding special  display  fixtures  that  you  do  not 
already  have  in  the  store. 

The  idea  that  high  class  fixtures  are  an  ex- 
pense is  all  wrong.  It  is  an  expense  to  try  to 
get  along  without  them.  For  instance,  a  man 
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Store  Management — Complete 

considers  the  installation  of  a  cash  carrying  sys- 
them.  It  looks  to  him  like  an  unnecessary  charge 
to  have  to  pay  money  for  a  machine  to  carry 
money  and  packages  back  and  forth  when  he  has 
plenty  of  help  to  do  it. 

If  that  man  thinks  that  without  the  cash  and 
package  carrier  he  is  getting  his  carrying  done 
for  nothing,  he  is  sadly  mistaken.  The  carry- 
ing must  be  done  by  his  employes  and  if  he  thinks 
that  it  is  cheaper  to  do  simple  manual  labor  of 
that  sort  by  hand  than  to  do  it  by  machinery, 
he  is  calling  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
labor  a  lie. 

Another  point  of  great  value  in  favor  of  fix- 
tures is  the  reduction  in  the  time  needed  for  all 
sorts  of  store  service,  thus  the  fixtures  making 
it  possible  to  serve  customers  with  greater  facility, 
speed  and  accuracy.  This  means  inevitably  more 
customers  and  better  suited  customers,  also  less 
clerks. 

One  of  the  ways  in  which  many  factories  are 
making  money,  a  way  in  fact  in  which  some 
plants  make  all  their  net  profit,  is  through  the 
sale  of  by-products.  You  think  there  are  no  by- 
products in  a  store.  Wrong  again ! 

A  penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned  and  a  penny 
lost  through  thoughtlessness  or  ignorance  of  the 
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Store  Management — Complete 

way  to  save  it  is  as  much  a  leak  as  the  payment 
of  a  cent  a  pound  more  for  wrapping  twine  than 
is  necessary. 

If  you  buy  any  goods  at  all,  some  of  them 
come  in  barrels,  crates,  cases  or  glass  containers 
that  have  a  value  when  empty. 

It  may  be  that  such  containers  as  you  get  are 
never  called  for  at  your  store  but  that  is  no 
reason  why  you  cannot  sell  them.  Take  the  lids 
off  from  boxes  carefully  without  splitting 
them.  Open  barrels  without  tearing  them  all  to 
pieces.  Save  corks  to  bottles.  Save  the  bottles, 
jars,  bags  or  what  not.  Hang  up  somewhere  in 
sight  a  card  saying  that  you  sell  empty  boxes, 
etc. 

Plenty  of  people  are  able  and  willing  to  pay 
a  little  money  for  good  clean  kindling  wood. 
Other  people  want  occasional  packing  cases  or 
barrels  for  various  uses.  Corks  can  be  re-used 
and  second-hand  bottles  except  in  a  few  cases 
can  be  refilled,  or  sold  to  junk  dealers,  liquor 
dealers,  etc.  A  junk  dealer  will  buy  anything 
from  an  old  tin  basin  to  a  building  that  needs  to 
be  torn  down.  All  kinds  of  old  metal  have  a 
value.  Tin  foil  or  lead  foil  in  which  some 
goods  are  wrapped  is  worth  several  cents  a  pound. 
Old  rubber  of  any  kind  has  a  price. 

If  you  throw  out  much  waste  paper,  better  get 
144 


- 
rtSITY 

OF 


Even    barrels    have    a    value    when    empty. — See 
page  144. 


Store  Management — Complete 

a  press  and  bale  it  up  and  sell  it  to  a  paper 
plant  for  50  cents  per  100  pounds.  If  you 
can't  make  it  pay  to  bale  it  yourself,  find  some- 
one who  can  and  does  bale  it,  a  printing  house 
for  instance  and  sell  to  them  at  half  that  figure. 
It  is  all  velvet  that  you  get  for  such  stuff.  Paper 
that  is  sold  in  that  way  need  not  be  stored.  All 
stock  that  has  printer's  ink  on  it  goes  into  the 
making  of  straw-board  or  something  of  that  kind 
anyway.  Paper  in  compressed  bales  or  in  crates 
(not  in  boxes)  can  be  shipped  at  a  very  low  rate 
by  freight,  about  15  cents  per  cwt.,  usually,  and 
in  carload  lots  much  cheaper. 

Remember  that  any  kind  of  goods  that  you 
think  worthless,  whether  odds  and  ends  of  pack- 
ing matter  or  simply  damaged  stock,  will  be 
worth  more  to  you  and  sell  more  quickly  if  made 
to  look  as  well  as  possible.  The  plan  of  calling 
things  "  junk "  as  soon  as  they  show  a  little 
wear,  or  because  they  are  things  of  the  by-prod- 
uct class  that  you  have  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard as  valueless  is  a  mistake.  Don't  classify 
anything  as  junk  until  you  know  positively  that 
it  will  bring  you  nothing.  Why,  even  excelsior 
and  sawdust  have  a  value  and  may  be  sold  to 
livery  stables  for  bedding,  if  nowhere  else. 

Dirt,  just  plain,  every  day  dirt  is  productive 
of  more  store  leaks  than  almost  any  other  cause. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

It  produces  leaks  of  all  kinds  and  of  all  sizes. 
It  causes  depreciation  of  stock  and  of  trade.  It 
prevents  sales  by  spoiling  the  goods  and  by  spoil- 
ing people's  appetites  for  them. 

Customers  are  averse  to  dirt  on  the  goods  they 
buy.  They  like  them  to  be  bright  and  clean. 
They  like  them  that  way  and  buy  more  freely 
when  they  have  come  for  the  express  purpose 
of  buying  some  one  thing.  And  they  are  more 
often  attracted  to  goods  that  they  did  not  come 
to  buy  i'f  those  goods  are  clean.  Sales  on  sight 
are  rarely  made  of  goods  that  are  dirty. 

Dirt  reduces  the  actual  intrinsic  value  of  much 
stock,  aside  from  the  mere  matter  of  its  making 
it  unsalable.  It  depreciates  the  value  of  fixtures 
and  it  makes  painting  a  more  frequent  necessity. 
Keep  out  the  dirt  and  let  in  the  profits.  Dirt 
and  profits  are  sworn  enemies. 

The  wrong  way  of  sweeping,  stirring  the  dust 
up  and  letting  it  settle  all  over  the  stock,  only 
to  be  stirred  up  again  soon  with  a  feather  duster, 
causes  loss  by  making  it  impossible  to  pick  up 
white  or  light  colored  stock  of  any  kind  without 
making  a  finger  mark.  Sweeping  should  be  done 
with  a  preparation  to  keep  the  dust  down.  You 
can  use  one  of  the  advertised  preparations  of 
this  sort  and  pay  a  fancy  price  for  it  or  you  can 
make  up  a  sweeping  compound  on  some  such 
146 


Store  Management — Complete 

formula  as  the  following :  sawdust,  two  bushels ; 
salt,  5  Ibs. ;  lardine  oil,  i  gal. 

Moistened  sawdust  does  very  well.  Snow  is 
first  class  when  available.  Keep  the  dust  on  the 
floor  and  sweep  it  out  and  it  will  not  cause  you 
loss.  Then  don't  use  a  feather  duster.  Wipe 
the  dust  off  of  things  and  it  is  disposed  of  for 
good. 

Darkness  operates  in  a  good  deal  the  same  way 
as  dirt.  An  article  may  have  just  as  much  merit 
when  kept  in  a  dark  corner  of  the  store  but  no 
one  will  know  it  and  no  one  will  buy  the  article. 
Let  in  the  light.  Light  seems  like  a  big  ex- 
pense, but  a  bigger  expense  is  darkness.  Every 
customer  who  enters  the  store  will  think  that 
the  dark  corners  are  dirty  corners.  Dirt  is  as- 
sociated with  darkness  in  the  minds  of  most 
housekeepers  —  and  with  a  good  deal  of  reason 
too. 

The  short-sighted  merchant  is  likely  to  think 
that  odds  and  ends  of  stock  that  are  getting 
past  their  prime  may  be  made  to  move  off  at 
full  price  if  mixed  with  new  goods.  The  man 
with  the  soda  fountain,  for  instance,  might  ex- 
pect to  get  rid  of  the  left  over  part  of  a  batch 
of  fruit  that  lacks  just  a  little  of  being  spoiled, 
by  putting  it  in  with  a  fresh  lot.  He  makes  the 
mistake  of  his  life  by  doing  a  thing  like  that. 
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Store  Management — Complete 

The  old  fruit  may  not  cause  the  new  to  spoil 
but  it  causes  the  whole  to  fall  more  or  less  short 
of  being  first  class.  The  right  sort  of  economy 
would  be  to  throw  out  the  old  and  start  afresh, 
thus  keeping  up  a  standard  of  quality  of  flavor 
that  would  be  conspicuously  good.  This  is  illus- 
trative of  a  rule  that  holds  good  through  count- 
less lines  of  stock.  It  is  the  old  instance  of  the 
bad  polluting  the  good  much  more  easily  than 
the  good  can  correct  the  bad. 

Another  leak  that  is  as  bad  as  trying  to  make 
depreciated  stock  go  to  full  price,  and  possibly 
reducing  the  good  stock  in  attractiveness  by  mix- 
ing the  old  and  new  together,  is  to  cut  all  the 
profit  off  from  the  old  stock  unnecessarily.  Old 
stock  should  be  made  to  produce  a  profit  when- 
ever possible.  There  are  two  extremes  possible 
in  handling  such  goods  and  either  of  them  results 
in  a  loss  which  can  be  obviated  by  the  use  of  care 
and  good  judgment. 

The  old  preceptor  who  gave  me  my  first  les- 
sons in  storekeeping  used  to  say  that  "  It  is  a 
fool  who  gives  over-weight  and  a  scoundrel  who 
gives  underweight."  This  is  more  than  a  mere 
platitude.  It  is  a  principle.  The  man  who  gives 
over-weight  or  over-measure,  or  who  allows  his 
clerks  to  do  so,  is  throwing  away  good  money, 
absolutely  throwing  it  away.  A  customer  may 
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Store  Management — Complete 

be  made  to  feel  pleased  by  having  a  little  extra 
thrown  in  sometimes  —  if  he  knows  it,  but  where 
there  is  simply  a  giving  of  extra  weight  or  meas- 
ure through  carelessness,  it  redounds  to  no  pos- 
sible advantage  for  the  store  in  the  way  of 
pleased  customers,  and  it  does  produce  an  actual 
and  palpable  money  loss.  Cut  it  out! 

The  leak  that  produces  occasional  appreciable 
losses  is  the  failure  to  keep  careful  track  of 
goods  that  are  returned  to  the  wholesaler  or 
manufacturer.  Goods  returned  to  the  shipper 
for  any  sort  of  reason  ought  to  be  billed  to  him 
just  as  if  an  actual  sale  were  taking  place  and 
the  account  should  be  looked  after  with  the  same 
care  that  any  other  account  would  receive.  The 
practice  of  sending  goods  back  simply  marked 
"  From  So-and-So  "  of  such  a  town  and  making 
no  account  of  the  matter  unless  it  be  a  memo- 
randum kept  in  some  irregular  place  will  make 
loss  sooner  or  later  and  perhaps  cause  difficul- 
ties with  the  wholesaler  to  whom  the  goods  are 
shipped. 

The  use  of  goods  in  stock  by  employes  pro- 
duces loss  also.  With  the  best  of  intentions  upon 
the  part  of  the  clerk  who  takes  an  article  out  of 
stock  for  temporary  use,  he  may  damage  it,  lose 
it,  forget  all  about  it,  or  allow  some  other  cause 
to  prevent  him  from  restoring  the  goods  in  per- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

feet  condition  to  the  shelves.  The  taking  of 
goods  from  stock  for  use  by  dishonest  employes 
without  pretending  even  to  pay  for  them  needs 
no  mention  here,  save  to  say  that  where  a  mer- 
chant allows  such  work  to  go  on  under  his  nose 
he  is  being  defrauded  in  a  very  elementary  way. 

It  is  the  same  with  reference  to  the  dishonest 
clerk  and  the  money  drawer.  The  clerk  who 
has  the  disposition  can,  in  spite  of  his  employer's 
care,  abstract  some  of  his  money  in  reasonable 
security.  Every  employer  knows  this  and  the 
money  a  clerk  takes  is  taken  usually  because  his 
employer  has  undue  confidence  in  him  and  be- 
lieves he  is  honest  and  needs  no  watching. 

Every  man  is  entitled  to  be  considered  honest 
until  he  is  proved  otherwise  —  but  every  man  has 
his  price,  they  say,  and  awaits  only  a  temptation 
great  enough.  It  is  better  not  to  tempt  any  man 
—  better  not  to  put  yourself  in  a  position  of 
temptation. 

Forgetting  to  charge  goods  sold  on  credit  is 
so  well  known  a  leak  that  it  calls  for  nothing 
more  than  emphasis.  There  will  be  some  loss 
of  this  sort  in  spite  of  the  utmost  watchfulness. 

There  are  sometimes  requests  for  the  loan  of 
goods  out  of  a  store,  or  the  request  may  be  for 
tools,  fixtures  or  any  part  of  the  equipment. 
Such  loans  are  perhaps  between  personal  friends. 


Store  Management — Complete 

Even  personal  friends  sometimes  forget.  Charge 
up  in  the  regular  way  loans  of  this  sort  and  no 
one  will  be  offended  and  there  will  be  no  ensuing 
loss. 

If  your  lights  are  on  a  meter,  see  that  there 
is  no  needless  waste  of  illumination  —  but  better 
waste  a  little  light  than  skimp  on  it.  Still  there 
is  no  need  for  lights  to  be  left  going  in  the 
cellar  when  no  one  is  occupied  there,  or  in  the 
store-room,  or  turned  on  in  the  windows  before 
it  grows  dark  enough  to  need  them.  Make  it 
the  business  of  some  one  employee  to  look  after 
the  lighting  end. 

There  is  often  a  needless  waste  of  goods  in 
making  window  displays.  Not  enough  care  is 
taken  in  making  displays.  More  goods  are  ex- 
posed to  the  damaging  effects  of  light  or  heat 
than  is  necessary,  or  goods  are  left  just  enough 
longer  there  than  is  necessary  with  a  resultant 
loss. 

In  most  smaller  stores  time  is  a  thing  that  is 
not  accounted  valuable.  Employes  waste  a  little 
time  every  day  with  the  result  that  eventually 
comes  a  day  when  in  addition  to  the  regular  du- 
ties are  so  many  accumulated  extras  that  some- 
one has  to  be  called  in  to  help  with  some  of  the 
work. 

There    are    sometimes    mistakes    in   -marking 


Store  Management — Complete 

goods  or  what  is  worse  in  leaving  them  unmarked 
and  this  means  that  there  is  a  far  greater  chance 
of  the  goods  being  sold  for  less  than  the  proper 
figure  than  for  more.  Goods  should  always  be 
marked.  There  is  a  leak  if  you  trust  anyone's 
or  everyone's  memory  to  get  the  price  right  even 
on  standard  goods. 

One  of  the  biggest  leaks  in  the  retail  store  is 
dead  stock  and  this  loss  through  dead  stock  is 
one  that  cannot  be  corrected  by  instructing 
clerks.  It  requires  the  careful  and  constant  at- 
tention of  the  proprietor  himself  or  of  someone 
who  stands  in  lieu  of  proprietor  with  proper  re- 
sponsibility for  the  success  of  the  business  as  a 
profit  maker. 

Dead  stock  is  often  caused  by  over-buying.  A 
line  of  seasonable  goods  may  be  overbought  just 
enough  so  that  the  profit  on  the  stock  will  be 
left  tied  up  in  the  goods  still  on  hand  when  the 
season  ends.  So  it  may  easily  be  seen  that 
leaks  may  start  in  the  buying  department  and 
there  is  no  part  of  the  management  of  a  store 
which  can  certainly  be  considered  free  from  such 
possibilities. 

The  failure  to  take  "all  cash  discounts  causes 
a  loss  of  profits.  Don't  miss  the  little  one,  two 
or  five  per  cent,  that  can  be  had  for  the  taking. 

Careless  arrangement  of  stock  or  misplacement 
152 


Store  Management — Complete 

of  certain  items  will  always  let  profits  slip  away. 
Failure  to  have  all  of  a  certain  line  of  goods 
in  the  places  in  which  they  belong,  and  all  in 
the  same  place  causes  over-buying  by  making  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  buy  more  goods  before 
getting  rid  of  as  much  of  his  previous  stock 
as  he  thought  he  had  sold.  Such  poor  arrange- 
ment also  loses  sales,  for  every  now  and  then  a 
salesman  will  find  the  stock  in  one  place  all  gone 
and  turn  away  the  customer,  not  knowing  that 
there  is  more  stock  in  another  place. 

The  inability  to  find  goods  when  they  are 
wanted  means  inevitable  loss  of  sales  and  that 
means  not  only  loss  of  profits  on  those  sales  but 
also  possible  loss  of  customers.  A  proper  and 
systematic  arrangement  of  stock  in  the  store  and 
store-room  will  stop  many  leaks. 

System  throughout  the  whole  store  operations 
is  necessary  to  stop  the  leaks.  The  only  thing 
to  avoid  in  the  matter  of  systematizing  is  the 
possibility  of  going  too  far  with  it  and  making  it 
a  consumer  of  time  and  consequently  a  cause  of 
a  leak  that  may  cost  more  than  it  saves. 

The  minor  economies  of  a  store  are  as  im- 
portant as  the  larger  and  no  merchant  should  be 
afraid  of  his  clerks  or  anyone  else  thinking  him 
penurious  because  he  objects  to  winding  twine 
around  parcels  more  times  than  is  necessary,  or 

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Store  Management — Complete 

taking  a  larger  sized  sheet  of  wrapping  paper 
than  an  article  requires  for  its  proper  covering 
and  protection. 

See  that  price  tags  are  taken  off  from  goods 
sold  and  then  thrown  into  a  little  box  from  which 
they  can  be  used  over  again. 

Save  the  odds  and  ends  of  heavy  twine  and 
wrapping  paper  that  come  in,  caring  for  them  in 
an  orderly  manner. 

Let  the  cheap  help  do  the  cheap  jobs.  Don't 
send  a  fifteen  dollar  a  week  man  out  with  a  parcel 
to  be  delivered. 

Study  the  advertising  mediums  you  use  and  see 
that  they  give  you  the  circulation  you  pay  for. 
Don't  use  a  larger  space  in  any  newspaper  than 
will  pay  a  profit.  It  is  as  easy  to  use  too  much 
space  as  it  is  to  use  too  little. 

Don't  cut  the  price  of  goods  unnecessarily.  It 
isn't  necessary  to  believe  every  Tom,  Dick  and 
Harry  who  comes  in  and  tells  you  about  how 
cheap  certain  goods  can  be  bought  down  the 
street.  Be  sure  you're  right  before  you  cut  a 
price. 

Prevent  depreciation  in  fixtures  as  much  as 
possible.  That  means  that  the  fixtures  can  be 
listed  higher  in  the  inventory  and  it  all  counts 
for  the  profit  side  of  the  annual  report.  A  show 
case  with  a  cracked  glass  or  a  broken  support 
154 


Store  Management — Complete 

somewhere  has  to  stand  for  less  when  you  list  it 
at  the  end  of  the  year. 

Look  out  for  transportation  charges  by  com- 
bining orders,  figuring  ahead  on  the  amount  of 
stock  that  is  going  to  be  needed.  Don't  wait 
until  the  last  minute  and  have  to  ship  in  by  ex- 
press any  oftener  than  can  be  avoided. 

Waste  no  goods.  Waste  no  equipment.  Waste 
no  opportunities. 

Waste  not ;  want  not ! 


155 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  STORE'S  NEIGHBORS 

The  contented  man  is  he  who  lives  at  peace 
with  his  neighbors.  The  successful  man  is  he 
who  makes  the  best  use  of  his  neighbors. 

The  successful  merchant  needs  all  the  help  he 
can  get  from  everybody  who  will  help  him  and  his 
business  neighbors  ought  to  be  given  every  op- 
portunity to  do  their  share. 

There  are  storekeepers,  you  know  some  of 
them,  who. make  their  store  a  shell  into  which 
they  crawl  every  morning  and  stay  until  they 
have  to  go  home  at  night  to  sleep.  If  these  fel- 
lows come  out  long  enough  to  go  to  the  bank  or 
lunch,  they  come  out  only  in  a  physical  sense. 
Mentally  they  are  still  in  the  store. 

They  ^at,  drink,  sleep,  think  nothing  but  store, 
store,  store. 

Such  men  may  make  some  money.  They  may 
even  be  accounted  successful  in  the  sense  of  hav- 
ing reached  a  point  where  they  do  business 
enough  to  enable  them  to  save  a  little  money 
every  year.  They  may  be  successful  storekeep- 

156 


Store  Management — Complete 

ers  in  the  technical  sense  but  they  are  not  suc- 
cessful men. 

They  have  succeeded  in  getting  upon  their 
financial  feet  in  spite  of  their  nose-on-the-grind- 
stone  methods,  rather  than  on  account  of  them. 

The  merchant  who  wants  to  succeed  in  the 
larger  sense  of  the  word  must  be  something  of 
a  mixer.  He  must  get  acquainted  with  his  fel- 
low merchants  and  he  must  take  time  to  talk 
with  them  about  business  conditions.  He  must 
crawl  out  of  his  shell  as  often  as  he  can  make 
opportunity.  He  will  do  more  business  for  it 
and  he  will  live  longer  and  better.  He  will  be 
happier. 

The  man  who  starts  in  business  in  a  strange 
town  and  does  nothing  to  get  acquainted  with  the 
rest  of  the  business  men  there  will  find  that  he 
is  a  long  time  getting  to  where  he  is  regarded 
as  one  of  them.  He  will  be  the  "  man  from 
Punkville  "  for  years  instead  of  becoming  in  a  few 
weeks  "  our  esteemed  fellow  citizen  "  as  he  might 
if  he  started  right  in  to  get  acquainted. 

The  newcomer  needs  to  go  right  down  the  line 
as  he  gets  time,  calling  on  every  merchant  in 
the  town  and  explaining  who  he  is,  where  he 
is  located  and  in  some  cases  telling  what  he 
intends  to  do.  He  should  call  on  competitors 
among  the  rest  and  get  on  a  friendly  footing  with 
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Store  Management — Complete 

them  right  away.  Even  a  man's  competitors  do 
him  less  harm  if  they  are  friendly. 

The  man  who  has  always  been  in  business  right 
at  the  same  old  stand  is  inclined  to  forget  about 
the  desirability  of  mixing  with  his  neighbors  even 
if  he  realized  it  at  the  outset. 

Perhaps  you  yourself  have  been  doing  business 
right  where  you  are  for  ten  years.  Perhaps 
when  you  started  in  you  took  pains  to  get  started 
right  with  the  other  merchants  and  since  that 
have  been  so  busy  that  you  have  not  had  time  to 
call  on  them  or  to  see  them  except  as  circum- 
stances have  happened  to  throw  you  together. 

Other  merchants  have  worked  together  and 
played  together  until  they  have  become  personal 
friends  with  interests  outside  of  their  mere  rou- 
tine work  and  with  an  inclination  to  help  one 
another  whenever  there  came  a  chance. 

You  have  stuck  tight  in  your  shell  until  you 
have  become  shell-bound  and  your  neighbors  who 
should  have  been  friends  have  become  mere  ac- 
quaintances to  whom  you  speak  when  you  meet 
them  and  with  whom  you  talk  only  when  you  are 
thrown  together  by  some  chance  meeting. 

You  are  making  a  mistake  which  will  be  pro- 
ductive of  various  sorts  of  disadvantageous  re- 
sults. 

The   more    friends   you   have   personally,    the 

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Store  Management — Complete 

more  your  store  will  have  and  that  means  dollars 
and  cents  to  you.  The  more  friends  you  have 
among  your  business  neighbors,  the  more  of  them 
will  refer  to  you  inquiries  that  they  receive  for 
goods  you  have  and  they  do  not  have  in  stock. 

Every  store  in  your  vicinity  has  visitors  al- 
most every  day  who  ask  for  goods  that  you  have 
and  that  that  store  does  not  have.  Those  in- 
quiries are  going  to  be  referred  to  the  man  whom 
the  people  in  that  store  like  and  if  you  never  go 
in  there,  if  you  do  not  know  the  clerks  to  speak 
to  them,  and  only  know  the  proprietor  to  nod 
to  him  on  the  street,  you  need  not  draw  on  your 
imagination  very  much  to  know  where  they  will 
not  send  such  an  inquirer.  He  will  be  sent  to 
some  merchant  whom  they  do  like. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  you  or  your 
family  buys  so  many  dollars  worth  of  goods  in 
such  a  store  and  hence  they  must  reciprocate. 
That  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes.  There  will  be  a 
technical  reciprocity  and  they  will  throw  you  some 
trade,  but  there  will  be  no  whole-hearted  desire 
to  do  you  some  good  just  because  you  are  pop- 
ular. 

Popularity  is  an  evanescent  thing  and  not  con- 
sidered of  any  permanent  value,  but  for  the  mer- 
chant it  certainly  pays.  To  have  people  like  you 
means  that  they  will  come  to  your  store  them- 
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Store  Management — Complete 

selves  and  send  their  friends  as  well.  Popular- 
ity pays  if  it  does  not  cost  too  much.  Take 
pains  to  make  people  like  you  and  they  will  take 
pains  to  do  you  all  the  good  they  can. 

When  you  go  to  meals,  stop  in  once  and  a 
while  and  talk  business  over  with  some  merchant 
on  your  route.  Make  plenty  of  these  little  calls 
and  make  them  in  a  casual  way  and  you  will  soon 
find  that  you  are  getting  better  acquainted  and 
more  friendly  with  your  fellow  merchants  in  all 
lines.  When  you  fall  in  with  people  in  the  street 
and  have  a  chance  to  walk  along  with  them  for 
a  block  or  two,  do  it  and  make  it  count.  Go 
out  of  your  way  to  get  a  chance  to  increase  your 
acquaintanceship  by  means  of  these  casual  visits. 

It  is  all  right  to  work  hard  and  long  and 
waste  no  time  but  no  man  can  work  all  the  time 
and  not  get  so  deep  into  a  rut  that  he  cannot  see 
over  the  sides.  The  man  in  a  rut  soon  becomes 
in  business  stature  a  runt. 

All  this  that  I  have  said  about  visiting  with 
your  business  neighbors  has  been  with  a  view 
to  showing  you  where  it  would  benefit  you  in  a 
financial  way  to  be  a  mixer.  Nothing  has  been 
said  about  the  general  good  of  the  community 
which  will  be  advanced  by  co-operation  among 
the  merchants  and  the  promotion  of  good  feeling. 
Nor  have  I  said  anything  about  the  advantage 
1 60 


Let    the    cheap    help    do    the    cheap    jobs. — See 
page  154. 


Store  Management — Complete 

to  you  of  doing  your  fellow  men  a  little  good  as 
you  go  along,  being  more  of  a  human  being  and 
less  of  a  money-making  machine. 

While  your  competitors  will  do  you  less  good 
than  any  other  merchants  it  is  almost  more  im- 
portant to  be  on  good  terms  with  them  than  with 
some  others.  You  know  how  it  is  when  a  customer 
comes  in  and  asks  for  something  you  are  out  of. 
You  will  send  the  customer  who  asks  you  who 
else  handles  the  goods,  to  the  fellow  you  like. 

Right  here  I  am  reminded  of  an  instance 
where  the  competitors  of  a  new  store  showed 
their  good  will  and  friendly  attitude  by  sending 
to  the  new  store's  opening  large  floral  pieces  and 
general  good  wishes. 

The  man  who  opens  a  store  in  a  town  where 
his  competitors  greet  him  in  so  friendly  a  spirit 
as  that  can  scarcely  turn  around  and  knife  them 
if  he  has  any  decency  about  him  at  all. 

And  then  there  are  often  times  when  one  wants 
to  borrow  stock  from  the  other  fellow.  If  he 
has  been  treated  fairly  he  will  be  willing  to  help 
you  out.  If  he  has  not,  he  will  refuse  you  and 
and  you  cannot  blame  him. 

The  borrowing  proposition  is  a  poor  one  at 
the  best  and  the  dealer  who  can  get  along  with- 
out having  to  ask  favors  of  his  competitor  will 
be  in  a  position  where  he  can  refuse  requests 
161 


Store  Management — Complete 

from  the  man  who  has  the  borrowing  habit  and 
is  likely  to  become  a  nuisance. 

I  have  had  competitors  who  seemed  not  to 
know  what  it  was  to  get  discouraged,  who  would 
come  back  day  after  day  in  spite  of  a  consistent 
and  persistent  refusal  of  every  request. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  accommodate  a  competitor 
once  in  a  while.  There  are  times  when  it  is  a 
fair  request  that  you  loan  a  bit  of  stock  or  sell 
it  to  the  man  across  the  street.  But  when  the 
other  fellow  gets  to  a  point  where  he  seems  to 
be  depending  upon  you  to  carry  a  stock  for  him, 
it  is  time  to  cut  him  off. 

If  a  competitor  will  not  be  reasonable  in  his 
requests,  refuse  them  all  and  then  refrain  from 
asking  any  favors  from  him  under  any  circum- 
stances. 

The  best  plan  in  any  case  is  to  have  an  un- 
derstanding with  competitors  that  when  any  of 
you  want  to  get  stock  from  the  other  man  in  the 
same  line  you  are  to  pay  him  a  price  that  will 
give  him  half  of  his  regular  profit  and  pay  it 
in  cash,  with  the  understanding  that  in  the  case 
of  price  protected  goods  the  full  price  must  be 
paid  in  cash. 

There  are  plenty  of  days  when  you  have  time 
to  spare,  time  to  get  out  and  see  what  kind  of 
fellows  the  other  men  in  business  in  your  town 
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Store  Management — Complete 

are.  Take  advantage  of  such  opportunities.  If 
you  don't  like  to  go  and  spend  half  an  hour  in 
some  other  man's  store,  call  him  up  on  the  tele- 
phone and  tell  him  that  you  have  a  good  cigar 
waiting  for  him  and  that  you'd  be  glad  if  he 
would  drop  in  and  talk  over  local  business  con- 
ditions a  little  just  for  the  fun  of  it. 

Make  it  a  point  to  have  occasional  little  parties 
along  this  line  on  dull  days.  Call  up  three  or 
four  men  whom  you  think  are  not  busy  and  ask 
them  in  for  a  little  while.  Tell  them  that  you 
have  something  you  would  like  their  opinion 
about  —  and  then  have  some  scheme  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  town  that  you  can  bring  up  just  as  an 
excuse. 

It  is  often  possible  to  start  a  profitable  co- 
operative movement  in  some  such  informal  way 
as  this. 

Co-operation  among  merchants  is  going  to  be 
the  keynote  of  the  big  retail  successes  of  the 
future.  Instead  of  a  few  merchant  princes  we 
are  going  to  have  closely  knit  associations  of 
smaller  dealers  who  will  buy  together  and  work 
together  for  mutual  advantage. 

Such  organizations  are  already  making  good 
in  some  lines  and  are  proving  themselves  to  be 
serious  factors,  with  the  ability  to  secure  special 
terms  from  manufacturers  and  to  uphold  prices 

163     • 


Store  Management — Complete 

in  the  face  of  cut-rate  tendencies  on  the  part  of 
the  department  stores. 

You  remember  the  old  fable  of  the  man,  the 
sons  and  the  bundle  of  fagots?  Each  son  was 
handed  a  single  fagot  which  he  broke  easily. 
Then  the  father  tied  the  remaining  sticks  into 
one  large  bundle  and  told  the  sons  to  break  it. 
Of  course  they  could  make  no  impression  upon 
the  collected  bunch. 

And  this  illustrates  exactly  the  strength  of  co- 
operation. Any  single  small  dealer  alone  is  no 
match  for  the  strength  of  the  Big  Store  competi- 
tion, but  let  a  dozen,  or  fifty,  or  three  mer- 
chants combine  their  strength  and  set  out  to  hold 
the  trade  that  is  justly  theirs  from  being  taken 
from  them  by  the  bigger  dealer  and  the  latter 
will  find  that  he  has  "  struck  a  snag." 

Let  me  tell  you  what  the  merchants  in  the 
writer's  home  village  did  at  one  time  to  prove  the 
value  of  co-operation. 

Business  of  all  retail  sorts  was  going  away  to 
the  larger  nearby  places.  Not  that  people  could 
buy  to  much  better  advantage  in  those  places,  but 
you  know  how  it  is.  The  larger  town  always 
draws  from  the  smaller.  Bigger  assortments, 
better  stocks,  more  stores,  do  the  trick. 

Also  much  business  was  going  to  the  large  cat- 
alog houses. 

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Store  Management — Complete 

A  time  came  when  a  few  of  the  local  merchants 
woke  up  and  decided  that  co-operation  would  do 
much  to  bring  to  their  village  a  good  deal  of  the 
trade  then  going  elsewhere  from  right  under  their 
noses. 

An  organization  was  formed  called  the  Pros- 
perity League.  It  was  planned  by  two  or  three 
men  and  was  to  consist  of  all  the  retail  mer- 
chants, business  and  professional  men  in  the 
place.  A  self-organized  committee  of  six,  call- 
ing themselves  the  executive  committee  went  to 
the  business  people  and  asked  them  for  eight  dol- 
lars each  for  the  year's  work.  This  comprised  an 
initiation  fee  and  a  dollar  per  quarter  for  dues. 

The  committee  stated  at  the  outset  that  they 
expected  to  be  allowed  to  use  this  money  just 
as  they  saw  fit  with  no  restrictions  whatever. 
It  was  to  be  turned  over  to  them  without  limita- 
tions and  though  they  would  probably  call  upon 
the  merchants  for  advice  and  suggestions,  they 
would  in  reality  be  a  law  to  themselves  and  re- 
sponsible to  no  one  for  the  use  made  of  the 
money. 

This  left  the  executive  committee  free  to  be 
arid  to  do  the  whole  thing  in  their  own  way  and 
inasmuch  as  the  work  in  such  an  organization 
has  to  be  done  by  a  very  few  anyway,  this  placed 
no  restrictions  upon  what  they  should  do. 

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Store  Management — Complete 

It  might  seem  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  get 
the  merchants  in  a  town  to  give  up  their  money 
for  such  a  purpose  with  no  string  attached  to 
it,  but  the  committee  was  made  up  of  men  in 
whom  the  rest  had  every  confidence  and  they 
enlisted  the  sympathies  of  practically  every  busi- 
ness man  in  town,  securing  some  sixty  signatures 
to  the  agreement  to  pay,  making  nearly  five  hun- 
dred dollars  in  money  available. 

One  of  the  first  things  the  committee  did  was 
to  plan  for  a  "  Bargain  Week."  This  was  to 
be  an  effort  to  interest  all  the  people  within 
trading  distance  of  the  village  in  the  stores  there 
and  to  show  the  fickle  public  that  they  could  buy 
as  well  at  home  as  elsewhere  and  also  to  show 
them  incidentally  that  they  might  a  great  deal  bet- 
ter do  their  buying  at  home  and  keep  their  money 
in  circulation  where  it  would  perhaps  get  back  to 
them  again. 

This  Bargain  Week  sale  was  not  to  give  the 
public  a  chance  to  get  a  lot  of  goods  for  cost  or 
less  but  to  get  them  started  trading  where  they 
really  ought  to  be  trading.  It  seemed  with  reason 
that  if  the  committee  could  get  these  people  into 
the  merchants'  stores  during  that  week,  the  mer- 
chants themselves  by  means  of  the  available  ad- 
vantages ought  to  be  able  to  please  those  people 
well  enough  to  make  them  want  to  come  again. 
166 


Store  Management — Complete 

This  was  to  be  a  sort  of  opening  wedge  and  was 
to  be  followed  by  all  the  live  and  larger  mer- 
chants with  plenty  of  advertising  sent  to  these 
people  who  had  been  interested  by  the  Bargain 
Week  with  a  view  to  getting  them  to  come  back 
again. 

Every  merchant  whether  a  member  of  the  Pros- 
perity League  or  not  was  asked  to  place  on  sale 
for  a  certain  week  some  obvious  bargain.  It  was 
expected  that  each  would  sell  some  one  line  or 
article  of  general  use  at  a  price  at  or  perhaps  be- 
low cost  with  a  view  to  making  it  a  leader.  It 
was  understood  that  other  members  selling  the 
same  goods  were  not  to  consider  this  temporary 
cut  as  permanent  in  any  sense  or  done  for  per- 
sonal benefit. 

The  whole  scheme  was  with  the  idea  of  bring- 
ing as  many  people  as  possible  to  town  who  had 
not  been  in  the  habit  of  trading  there  and  getting 
them  started  to  coming  there  for  shopping. 

All  special  offers  had  to  go  through  the  hands 
of  the  executive  committee  in  order  that  there 
might  be  no  duplicating  of  the  same  offers.  The 
committee  acted  as  a  clearing  house  for  the  dif- 
ferent bargain  propositions. 

When  the  details  were  all  arranged  advertising 
was  put  out  in  the  nature  of  a  catalog  of  the 
different  bargains  and  in  individual  and  League 


Store  Management — Complete 

newspaper  advertising.  The  League  did  a  large 
amount  of  advertising  and  it  was  done  with 
League  money,  though  the  merchants  who  ad- 
vertised in  the  big  pamphlet  or  catalog  were 
charged  for  their  space. 

The  week  sale  proved  a  big  success,  accom- 
plishing just  what  the  promoters  set  out  to  ac- 
complish. Of  course  there  were  some  "  knock- 
ers "  as  there  are  in  the  case  of  every  progres- 
sive movement  but  practically  every  store  that 
advertised  any  bargains  sold  a  lot  of  those  and 
enough  other  goods  to  make  them  a  good  profit 
on  the  week's  business  in  spite  of  any  reduction 
it  might  have  suffered  through  the  cut  in  certain 
prices. 

In  addition  to  this  single  Bargain  Week  the 
Prosperity  League  did  a  great  many  other  things 
for  the  general  good  of  the  town.  The  province  of 
such  an  organization  is  practically  unlimited  and 
every  village  and  town  should  have  one.  The 
cities  all  do  have  something  similar  and  so  do 
many  smaller  places.  In  a  great  many  cases 
there  are  live  organizations  doing  a  good  work 
but  also  in  many  cases  they  are  dead  and  worth- 
less and  should  be  superseded  by  something  alive. 

Any  merchant  who  lives  and  does  business  in 
a  town  where  there  is  no  live  merchants'  or- 
ganization ought  to  talk  up  with  his  fellow 
168 


Store  Management — Complete 

merchants  the  advisability  of  starting  some- 
thing. Such  an  organization  to  be  a  success, 
needs  one  man  who  will  take  up  the  brunt  of 
the  work  and  assume  a  large  proportion  of  the 
responsibility.  You  yourself  may  be  just  the 
man,  or  you  may  know  of  another  merchant  who 
is  qualified  to  take  the  lead.  Get  that  man  into 
the  harness.  If  he  is  disinclined  to  assume  the 
responsibility,  bring  all  the  pressure  you  can  to 
bear  u]pon  him  and  in  all  probability  you  will  be 
able  to  get  him  to  agree  to  act  as  leader  for 
a  limited  time  at  least  and  there  should  be  an 
understudy  preparing  to  take  his  place  when  he 
cannot  spare  the  time  for  it  any  longer. 

Co-operation  can  accomplish  wonders.  With 
the  merchants  of  any  town  or  village  pulling  in 
opposite  directions  and  each  one  jealously  guard- 
ing his  own  individual  interests  with  the  fear  con- 
stantly before  him  that  some  other  dealer,  will  get 
a  customer  away  from  him,  there  can  be  no  co- 
operation and  no  pulling  together  for  the  gen- 
eral good. 

This  jealousy  and  this  every-man-for-himself 
attitude  is  due  to  a  great  extent  to  the  fact  that 
the  merchants  do  not  get  together.  They  do  not 
realize  that"  there  are  good  fellows  right  in  town 
in  the  same  business  as  themselves  and  they  do 
not  realize  that  three  shoe  dealers  or  half  a  dozen 
169 


Store  Management — Complete 

cigar  dealers  or  four  or  five  dry  goods  men 
pulling  together  with  a  view  to  getting  some  out 
of  town  trade  to  come  in  can  accomplish  in  that 
direction  ten  times  what  any  one  of  those  deal- 
ers can  do  alone. 

All  the  big  successes  of  any  kind  that  you  know 
of  among  merchants  are  the  result  of  co-opera- 
tion. Co-operation  is  the  only  gate  to  Success 
for  a  community. 

In  the  larger  towns  luncheon  clubs  or  some- 
thing of  that  sort  are  possible  and  of  great  ad- 
vantage. If  the  town  is  one  where  the  retailers 
take  their  noon  meal  down-town,  away  from 
home,  the  planning  of  a  daily  or  a  weekly,  or 
even  a  monthly  general  luncheon  when  these  men 
shall  get  their  meal  together  and  have  a  kind  of 
general  visiting  time,  with  possibly  a  short  ad- 
dress by  some  out-of-town  business  man  who  can 
talk  to  them  about  something  of  interest,  will  re- 
sult to  great  advantage. 

This  plan  is  easily  engineered  in  a  city  and  can 
without  much  trouble  lead  to  the  formation  of  an 
actual  working  organization.  In  fact  that  will 
be  the  natural  outcome  of  such  a  plan. 

In  the  smaller  places  where  the  business  men 
go  home  to  the  noon  meal  this  cannot  be  worked 
out  so  easily,  but  it  is  possible  to  have  an  in- 
formal dinner  one  evening  a  month  to  which  all 
170 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  merchants  are  invited  and  at  which  a  talk 
will  be  given  by  some  successful  merchant  from 
a  nearby  town,  or  perhaps  sometimes  by  some 
man  with  a  real  reputation.  If  there  is  a  local 
merchant  who  can  give  snappy  ginger  talks  on 
business  subjects,  he  will  fill  in  many  gaps. 

In  putting  on  dinners  of  this  sort  there  must 
be  more  than  a  general  invitation  to  the  mer- 
chants to  come.  They  must  be  seen  personally 
and  their  attendance  pledged.  Nothing  short  of 
a  good  deal  of  personal  work  will  make  a  success 
of  this  or  any  other  co-operative  plan. 

Co-operation  is  simply  a  more  extensive  and 
complete  form  of  neighborliness  and  it  pays.  Cul- 
tivate your  neighbors  and  work  with  them. 


171 


CHAPTER  IX 

WORKING     HOURS 

Some  merchants  work  all  the  time  they  are 
awake  except  a  few  minutes  grudgingly  given 
three  times  a  day  for  meals.  They  get  up  early 
and  shave  themselves.  They  have  their  wives 
cut  their  hair  after  they  shut  up  the  store  at 
night  and  they  take  their  baths  on  Sunday,  all  to 
save  time  to  work. 

That  is  not  a  very  nice  commentary  upon  the 
intelligence  of  the  genus  Merchant,  but  the  aver- 
age merchant  spends  more  time  on  his  job  than  is 
necessary,  albeit  he  spends  perhaps  less  intelli- 
gence. 

It  is  not  as  necessary  for  you  to  spend  more 
time  on  your  business  as  it  is  for  you  to  spend 
more  brains  and  less  time. 

However,  the  questions  that  arise  in  connec- 
tion with  the  hours  of  work  for  a  store,  the  times 
of  opening  and  of  closing,  the  hours  of  employes 
of  all  sorts  and  the  times  to  be  given  to  special 
sales  and  to  their  management  have  a  good  deal 
172 


Store  Management — Complete 

of  interest  to  the  merchant  and  are  well  worth 
some  study  and  consideration. 

One  of  the  first  rules  is  that  you  cannot  sell 
any  goods  when  the  store  is  closed. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  cut  down  the  hours  so 
that  yourself  and  the  "  Boys  "  will  not  have  to 
work  evenings  or  get  out  of  bed  in  the  dark  on 
cold  winter  mornings,  but  before  you  cut  off  any 
time  from  the  store's  open  hours,  be  sure  that  you 
are  not  cutting  off  as  well  a  good  slice  of  the  re- 
ceipts. 

The  stand  that  the  shorter  hours  men  take  is 
that  when  people  find  that  a  store  is  not  going  to 
be  open  evenings  that  will  adjust  their  buying 
so  that  it  will  all  be  done  in  the  daytime  and  they 
will  buy  just  as  much. 

This  is  all  very  well,  if  it  is  true.  But  in 
many  instances  it  lacks  a  good  deal  of  coinciding 
with  the  facts  of  the  case.  Many  goods  in  many 
stores  are  sold  for  immediate  use.  Such  goods 
as  are  for  immediate  consumption  like  candy, 
cigars,  books,  etc.,  are  wanted  right  away.  To- 
morrow will  not  do.  To-morrow  the  demand  is 
gone.  It  may  bring  its  own  demand,  but  not  the 
demand  of  the  night  before. 

There  are  many  things  to  be  considered  be- 
fore signing  an  agreement  to  close  up  at  six 
o'clock  during  the  summer,  or  during  the  winter 

173 


Store  Management — Complete 

or  for  some  other  limited  time  when  business 
is  supposed  to  be  poorer  after  the  whistle 
blows. 

In  the  first  place,  are  your  competitors  going  to 
close  also?  Are  all  of  them  signing  the  agree- 
ment, or  is  there  a  struggling  little  fellow  around 
the  corner  who  is  left  out?  It  may  be  that  that 
little  merchant  has  the  brains  and  the  inclination 
to  develop  into  a  bigger  merchant  than  any  other 
in  town  and  he  may  take  advantage  of  this  gen- 
eral closing  agreement  to  get  a  hold  upon  some 
of  the  people  who  would  not  think  of  coming  to 
him  if  any  other  store  were  open.  And  he  may 
have  the  business  ability  to  make  the  kind  of  use 
of  the  occasional  visits  of  these  customers  of 
yours  that  will  bring  them  back  to  him,  next  time 
in  daylight. 

Or  there  may  be  a  general  store  that  is  trying 
to  develop  its  trade  along  the  line  of  the  goods 
upon  which  you  specialize.  This  general  store 
may  refuse  to  close  early  and  you  think  it  does 
not  matter.  Aren't  you  taking  chances  playing 
into  that  merchant's  hands  in  that  way? 

Is  there  in  your  town  a  class  of  trade  that 
cannot  get  to  you  in  the  daytime?  Are  there 
factory  hands  who  are  unable  to  shop  except 
after  factory  hours?  Don't  think  that  these  peo- 
ple will  spend  as  much  money  in  the  short  half 
174 


Store  Management — Complete 

Saturday  holiday  when  there  are  various  tempta- 
tions to  visit  ball  games,  trolley  parks  or  what 
not,  as  they  will  if  your  store  is  available  and 
tempting  them  every  evening  in  the  week. 

And  then  in  the  country  village  where  there 
are  no  factories,  there  are  times,  such  as  haying 
or  harvesting,  when  the  farmers  cannot  go  to 
town  in  the  daytime  and  will  drive  in  at  night. 
Also  there  are  occasions  when  evening  attractions 
will  bring  people  into  town  at  night  and  those 
people  if  they  have  an  opportunity  will  do  some 
shopping  then. 

If  a  store  can  afford  to  close  up  at  six  o'clock, 
all  well  and  good.  So  much  the  better  for  the 
people  who  do  the  work  in  that  store.  If  it  can- 
not, then  it  may  well  increase  its  expense  a  little 
in  order  to  keep  open. 

The  fact  that  other  stores  in  your  line  are 
going  to  close,  or  want  you  to  close,  is  no  argu- 
ment for  your  doing  so.  Your  own  circum- 
stances and  your  own  business  conditions  and 
situation  must  be  the  rule  for  your  action. 

This  is  not  a  plea  for  long  hours.  No  one 
likes  short  hours  any  better  than  myself,  or  ap- 
preciates more  the  privilege  of  getting  out  early. 
But  business  is  business,  and  if  a  man  is  going 
to  succeed  at  it,  he  must  expect  to  make  some 
sacrifices.  His  store  must  have  the  right  of  way 
I7S 


Store  Management — Complete 

—  though  he  should  never  sacrifice  health  in  fol- 
lowing the  game. 

Consider  well  whether  it  will  pay  you  to  keep 
open  nights,  and  if  it  will,  then  keep  open  plenty 
late  enough.  Put  on  some  extra  short  time  help 
for  the  evening  session  and  then  go  after  the 
evening  business  to  make  it  pay  you.  Arrange 
so  that  part  of  the  force  will  come  in  later  in  the 
morning  and  work  evenings.  There  should  be 
no  difficulty  in  making  the  scheme  work  without 
the  necessity  for  giving  anyone  too  long  hours. 

In  a  town  where  there  is  a  well  developed 
evening  trade,  it  seems  that  it  might  be  better  to 
arrange  for  a  closing  of  one  afternoon  a  week 
rather  than  to  lose  business  by  closing  every 
evening.  The  postponement  of  a  sale  by  early 
closing  is  no  great  matter.  The  money  will  be  as 
good  when  it  does  come.  The  only  fault  to  be 
found  with  early  closing  is  that  in  many  cases  it 
reduces  the  bulk  of  business.  People  who  get 
along  until  to-morrow  without,  often  find  it  in- 
convenient to  rush  right  downtown  again  to-mor- 
row, and  the  first  thing  they  know,  they  have  got 
past  the  point  of  buying. 

It  is  just  as  it  is  with  the  sale  of  seasonable 
goods.  When  a  man  with  a  stock  of  summer 
clothing  meets  with  cool,  wet  weather  up  to  July, 
he  finds  that  a  lot  of  the  men  who  were  going  to 


Call  him  up  on  the  telephone  and  tell  him  you 

have  a  good  cigar  waiting  for  him. — 

See  page  163. 


Store  Management — Complete 

get  new  summer  suits,  have  been  wearing  their 
heavier  clothes  right  along  and  now  they  find  that 
they  can  make  the  last  summer's  suit  do  until 
September  and  a  sale  is  lost  that  wrll  never  come 
back. 

However,  there  are  many  instances  where  early 
closing  is  right  and  proper  and  when  it  is  justi- 
fied, it  should  be  done,  because  mighty  few  mer- 
chants of  any  calibre  whatsoever  get  too  much  re- 
lief from  business. 

In  one  town  known  to  me  there  is  a  general 
early  closing  movement  which  works  so  satis- 
factorily that  you  never  see  anyone  going  store- 
ward  after  five  o'clock  and  by  six  the  shopping 
section  is  as  deserted  as  on  Sunday.  This  is  a 
town  of  some  15,000.  A  town  not  fifty  miles 
from  that  one  does  a  big  after  supper  business 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  the  merchants  can- 
not get  together.  Just  as  soon  as  the  women  of 
the  town  get  their  supper  dishes  out  of  the  way 
they  hang  up  their  aprons  and  make  a  bee  line 
for  the  stores  and  don't  come  home  until  they  are 
forced  to  do  so  by  the  merchants  locking  them 
out.  It  requires  no  prophet  to  tell  in  which  town 
there  are  the  most  happy  family  gatherings  in  the 
evening. 

Just  as  anyone  can  do  more  work  working 
forty-eight  or  fifty  weeks  of  the  year  than 
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Store  Management — Complete 

working  fifty-two,  so  anyone  can  do  more  work 
in  a  reasonable  length  working  day  than  in  one 
of  unreasonable  length.  When  a  man  has  worked 
so  many  hours,  he  begins  to  lose  his  grip  and  his 
work  suffers  in  consequence.  He  does  not  do 
as  well  and  he  unfits  himself  for  the  next  day. 
There  is  nothing  gained  by  overworking  pro- 
prietor or  employes. 

Any  agreement  to  close  up  early  ought  to  be 
made  to  include  every  merchant  who  can  by  any 
possibility  be  inveigled  into  it.  No  man  should 
be  left  out  who  will  prove  dangerous  to  anyone 
who  closes,  or  who  will  make  capital  out  of  his 
not  closing. 

Neither  should  there  be  countenanced  any  vio- 
lations of  the  agreement.  If  you  agree  to  close 
up  at  a  certain  hour,  then  close  up.  Don't  be  the 
one  man  who  will  always  hang  on  five  or  ten 
minutes  after  the  hour  in  the  hope  of  gathering 
in  a  stray  customer  who  was  too  late  for  the 
other  stores.  Play  fair  or  get  out  of  the  game. 

As  to  opening  hours  in  the  morning,  you  know 
what  time  business  begins.  If  you  don't  know 
and  never  get  down  in  time  to  see  the  store 
opened,  try  getting  around  early  for  a  week  and 
see  what  you  find  out.  You  will  probably  dis- 
cover among  other  things  that  your  store  is  not 

178 


Store  Management — Complete 

ready  for  business  within  a  quarter  or  half  an 
hour  of  the  time  you  thought  it  was  ready. 

When  you  have  found  out  what  time  you  need 
to  be  open  mornings,  see  that  you  have  somebody 
there  at  that  time.  If  you  have  no  clerk  who  can 
be  depended  to  open  up  when  the  hour  strikes, 
get  one  who  can.  There  are  clerks  to  be  had 
who  will  do  all  you  want  them  to  even  if  you  are 
not  standing  over  them  with  a  club  all  the  time. 

And  when  you  plan  to  have  your  store  ready 
for  business  at  a  certain  hour  see  that  it  is  ready 
to  an  extent  further  than  merely  having  the  door 
unlocked.  The  sweeping  and  general  cleaning 
that  needs  to  be  done  every  morning  ought  to  be 
out  of  the  way  when  customers  begin  to  come  in. 
It  is  not  agreeable  to  a  customer  to  go  into  a 
store  early  in  the  morning  and  to  find  the  floor 
half  swept  with  little  piles  of  dirt  here  and  there 
and  the  goods  either  covered  up  with  sheeting  or 
covered  with  dust  while  the  clerk  has  to  set  the 
broom  in  the  corner  and  leaves  things  just  so  in 
order  to  sell  goods. 

This  condition  means  that  such  sales  will  re- 
ceive only  half  attention  and  be  satisfactory 
neither  to  buyer  or  seller.  Of  course  it  is  not 
practical  in  the  average  store  to  have  the  clean- 
ing done  so  early  as  to  be  all  over  with  when  the 
179 


Store  Management— -Complete 

door  is  unlocked  for  trade,  but  it  can  be  the  duty 
of  certain  clerks  or  a  certain  clerk  to  do  the 
cleaning  while  another  should  be  on  hand  ready 
to  wait  on  customers  promptly  at  the  same  time. 

Many  a  store  that  is  otherwise  well  managed 
causes  nothing  but  complaint  on  the  part  of  those 
who  find  it  necessary  to  shop  there  early  in  the 
morning. 

Sunday  closing  requires  attention  in  some  lines 
of  business,  while  in  others  there  seems  to  be 
no  inclination  to  open  at  all  on  that  day.  The 
man  who  cannot  get  along  without  doing  busi- 
ness on  Sunday  unless  he  is  a  purveyor  of  neces- 
sities which  people  must  buy  on  that  day,  is  in- 
deed unfortunate.  He  needs  the  day's  rest  more 
than  he  can  possibly  need  its  money. 

Of  course  there  are  merchants  who  would  not 
close  up  Sunday  or  at  night  or  at  any  other  time 
if  by  any  possibility  they  could  remain  open. 
They  make  it  hard  for  themselves  and  hard  for 
their  competitors.  But  I  believe  that  unless  a 
man  MUST  keep  his  store  open  Sunday  for  rea- 
sons which  justify  him  in  doing  so,  he  should 
close  up  tight  and  not  go  near  the  place  from 
Saturday  night  till  Monday  morning,  no  matter 
what  the  other  fellows  do. 

The  observance  of  holidays  sometimes  causes 
a  loss  of  trade  by  reason  of  the  extra  crowds  that 
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Store  Management — Complete 

may  be  in  town  at  that  time.  It  is  difficult  to 
get  satisfactory  work  out  of  clerks  who  want  to 
be  out  with  the  crowd,  but  in  a  store  where  the 
rule  is  to  keep  open  on  all  days  when  there  is 
likely  to  be  a  profitable  business,  there  is  less 
dissatisfaction  than  for  a  store  that  always  closes 
to  violate  its  custom  and  keep  open. 

When  the  clerks  have  been  educated  to  expect  a 
day  off  on  all  legal  holidays,  they  feel  deprived 
of  some  of  their  rights  if  they  have  to  work  on 
one  of  those  days. 

In  a  city  no  one  expects  a  store  to  be  open  on 
a  holiday  unless  it  sells  goods  that  are  in  especial 
demand  at  that  time.  In  the  smaller  place  it  is 
different.  Stores  are  supposed  to  be  open  at 
any  time  when  people  want  to  buy  goods.  If  the 
holiday  is  going  to  be  one  that  will  make  it  profit- 
able for  the  store  to  remain  open,  it  may  be  possi- 
ble to  arrange  with  the  clerks  to  work  on  a  basis 
of  extra  pay  or  a  day  off  at  another  time  to  make 
up,  or  part  of  the  force  may  work  part  of  the  day, 
dividing  it  up  in  some  such  way. 

The  clerks  are  entitled  to  a  fair  deal  in  the 
matter.  If  they  have  been  led  to  expect  their 
holidays  off,  they  should  have  either  them  or 
some  kind  of  an  equivalent. 

In  a  large  store  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  give 
individuals  extra  time  off  as  requested  without 
181 


v  Store  Management — Complete 

causing  dissatisfaction.  The  employee  is  entitled 
to  a  certain  vacation,  let  us  say.  Then  make  a 
rule  that  each  clerk  shall  have  extra  days  or  half 
days  off  to  the  number  of  so  many  during  the 
year,  for  pleasure  or  to  be  used  as  desired,  to  be 
allowed  or  asked  for,  but  not  given  unless  re- 
quested. 

In  the  smaller  store  where  employes  are  few 
and  all  under  the  direct  control  and  observation 
of  the  manager  it  may  be  feasible  to  allow  occa- 
sional half  days  or  days  off  on  request  without 
following  any  rule  in  the  matter  save  to  see  that 
there  is  something  like  a  fair  average  and  that 
no  one  man  gets  enough  more  time  than  the  rest 
so  that  there  can  be  any  cause  for  complaint. 
Keep  things  of  this  sort  as  nearly  even  as  possi- 
ble in  order  to  avoid  jealousy  or  discontent. 

As  to  the  matter  of  giving  employes  vacations 
on  full  pay,  this  is  a  matter  for  each  employer  to 
settle  for  himself.  Usually  in  a  store  where  the 
clerk  is  paid  a  stated  wage  per  week,  when  he 
takes  a  voluntary  leave  of  absence,  he  loses  his 
pay.  If  he  is  sick  for  a  short  time,  the  fair  em- 
ployer will  usually  make  no  deduction  for  loss  of 
time.  If  he  has  to  be  off  for  an  extended  sick- 
ness, especially  if  it  is  manifestly  caused  or  con- 
tributed to  by  his  close  application  to  his  work, 
the  employer  will  generally  keep  him  on  part  pay 
182 


Store  Management— Complete 

or  make  a  lump  contribution  to  help  offset  the 
necessary  loss.  The  main  thing  is  to  make  the 
clerk  feel  that  he  is  getting  fair  treatment. 

A  man  who  is  hired  for  so  much  per  year,  of 
course  gets  his  pay  whether  he  takes  his  vacation 
or  not,  the  matter  of  a  vacation  being  incorporated 
in  the  original  agreement  upon  hiring. 

All  such  matters  should  be  taken  up  when  the 
clerk  is  hired.  The  matter  of  any  special  rights 
or  privileges  out  of  the  ordinary  ought  to  be  set- 
tled then  and  there.  It  is  much  easier  to  arrange 
such  matters  in  advance  and  have  them  satisfac- 
tory than  it  is  to  make  them  up  separately,  time 
by  time. 

When  a  man  knows  what  to  expect  he  is  not 
constantly  being  disappointed. 

At  busy  times  of  the  year  it  is  often  necessary 
to  ask  help  to  work  overtime.  This  is  particu- 
larly true  of  the  Holiday  season  when  business  is 
at  its  greatest  and  keeps  everyone  going  at  top 
speed,  not  only  during  the  regular  store  hours, 
but  extra  hours  as  well. 

It  is  scarcely  fair  or  liable  to  be  productive  of 
the  best  feeling  to  ask  clerks  to  work  this  extra 
time  with  no  extra  pay  and  no  additional  re- 
muneration beyond  a  present  of  an  alarm  clock 
for  Christmas. 

It  ought  to  be  the  custom  of  the  store  to  pay  a 

183 


Store  Management — Complete 

certain  rate  for  overtime  or  to  give  each  employee 
an  arbitrary  bonus  for  Christmas.  This  season 
is  the  one'  that  produces  the  most  extra  time  for 
most  stores.  Of  course  there  are  many  lines  in 
which  the  business  is  admittedly  much  larger  at 
some  times  than  at  others,  but  this  does  not  re- 
quire the  excessive  strain  that  the  Christmas  trade 
calls  for  and  is  more  a  part  of  the  legitimate  store 
work. 

Special  sales  sometimes  call  for  overtime  and 
this  should  be  paid  for  if  it  amounts  to  enough  to 
make  it  worth  while.  Of  course  a  quarter  or 
half  hour  over  now  and  then  is  nothing  more  than 
the  clerks  should  expect.  There  is  no  business 
in  which  everyone  gets  through  right  on  the  tick 
of  the  watch  unless  he  is  a  mere  machine  with 
no  responsibility  whatever.  A  good  clerk  does 
not  object  to  a  reasonable  amount  of  overtime 
when  it  is  for  the  good  of  the  store. 

But  a  special  sale  may  be  designed  to  call  for 
extra  time,  the  store  being  kept  open  more  than 
the  usual  hours. 

"  After  supper  "  sales  are  a  popular  form  of 
sale  designed  to  bring  in  some  business  that  other- 
wise would  go  somewhere  else.  They  are  a  val- 
uable means  of  developing  extra  business.  When 
a  store  that  normally  closes  at_  eight  o'clock  puts 
on  such  a  sale  it  ought  to  plan  to  keep  open  an 
184 


Store  Management — Complete 

hour  or  so  later  than  usual.  After  supper  sales 
usually  run  for  several  days  or  a  week. 

No  special  sale  should  be  put  on  without  spe- 
cial preparation.  The  simplest  kind  of  a  sale 
cannot  be  expected  to  succeed  if  it  has  no  ad- 
vance thought  in  getting  ready  for  it.  There 
must  be  first  an  examination  of  the  stock  for  the 
sale  to  see  that  there  is  enough  of  it  to  meet  any 
reasonable  demand.  The  prices  must  then  be 
fixed.  The  questions  must  be  answered,  whether 
it  is  stock  that  must  be  sold  at  any  price  to  prevent 
it  from  going  lower  than  it  already  has  gone, 
whether  it  is  stock  that  one  can  afford  to  reduce 
at  all,  or  more  than  a  mere  tithe,  whether  it  is 
stock  that  can  be  used  as  a  sales  leader  by  selling 
it  for  less  than  cost,  though  it  be  staple. 

The  advertising  of  a  special  sale  is  most  im- 
portant and  upon  that  hinges  frequently  the  suc- 
cess or  failure  of  the  sale.  However,  advertising 
matters  are  not  within  the  province  of  this  book. 

When  one  plans  a  special  sale,  he  should  sit 
down  and  lay  out  a  regular  program  for  it.  This 
program  should  call  for  an  examination  of 
stock  with  orders  to  the  clerks  to  get  the  stock 
out  and  into  proper  shape  for  selling,  making  it 
look  as  attractive  as  possible.  There  should  be 
window  and  inside  displays  provided  for,  adver- 
tising, show  cards,  selling  schemes  and  attractive 

185 


Store  Management — Complete 

single  and  combination  prices.  The  greatest  of 
care  should  be  given  to  the  selection  of  the  date 
and  the  name  and  style  of  the  sale. 

There  should  be  provision  made  for  extra  help 
in  case  the  sale  is  to  be  large  enough  to  require 
any.  This  help  must  be  given  instruction  in  its 
work  and  the  goods  it  is  to  handle.  This  can  be 
done  in  a  few  sessions  after  closing. 

In  bringing  temporary  help  into  the  store  extra 
caution  must  be  used  in  order  that  there  may  be 
none  left  to  the  temptation  of  putting  money 
into  their  pockets.  Such  help  as  this  whose  relia- 
bility may  be  to  some  extent  unknown  ought  to 
be  hedged  about  with  all  possible  cautions,  not 
only  on  account  of  the  possibility  but  also  on 
account  of  the  greater  chances  of  such  help  for- 
getting to  charge  sales  not  paid  for,  or  to  make 
mistakes  in  change,  etc. 

One  of  the  important  things  to  be  remembered 
in  connection  with  a  special  sale  is  the  fact  that 
the  people  who  are  brought  in  by  attractive  offers 
of  goods  at  low  prices  must,  whenever  possible, 
be  sold  other  goods  in  order  to  make  the  sale  net 
a  proper  profit.  The  profit  on  the  sales  goods  is 
usually  rather  small,  sometimes  nothing.  There 
must  be  an  attractive  display  of  goods  that  do 
pay  a  profit,  seasonable  goods  that  will  sell  on 
sight,  and  the  clerks  must  be  particularly  in- 
186 


Store  Management — Complete 

structed  to  see  that  no  interest  in  these  other 
goods  on  the  part  of  a  customer  is  neglected.  It 
is  this  that  renders  it  almost  imperative  that  a 
sale  must  be  abundantly  supplied  with  clerks  if 
it  is  to  be  a  money  maker.  The  regular  force 
by  going  on  a  run  will  be  able  to  get  rid  of  a  lot 
of  goods  if  getting  rid  of  goods  is  the  sole  object 
of  the  sale.  However,  there  must  be  time  for 
salesmanship  if  the  goods  not  offered  at  cut 
prices  are  to  be  sold  in  any  quantity. 

The  ability  to  handle  special  sales  marks  the 
ability  to  succeed  in  business  building.  He  who 
cannot  handle  a  special  sale  to  advantage  and 
must  depend  upon  the  regular  round  of  every 
day  business  will  not  grow  as  fast  as  he  other- 
wise might.  Nowadays  people  feel  a  greater  in- 
terest in  the  store  that  keeps  prodding  them  with 
new  and  different  propositions. 

There  is  no  standing  still  in  business  —  not 
even  when  the  store  is  closed  up.  With  the  cur- 
tains down  and  the  door  locked  your  business  is 
still  growing  or  shrinking.  But  with  the  door 
locked  when  it  ought  to  be  open  you  can  be  cer- 
tain that  you  are  not  only  losing  sales,  you  are 
also  losing  customers. 

Keep  your  store  open  when  it  ought  to  be  open 
and  keep  something  doing  while  it  is  open.  Then 
the  business  will  grow,  even  with  the  door  shut. 


CHAPTER  X 

EXPENSES 

The  cost  of  doing  business  is  just  beginning  to 
receive  the  attention  it  deserves  from  the  average 
merchant.  There  has  in  past  years  been  too 
much  mere  buying  and  selling  with  a  variable 
amount  added  to  the  buying  price  to  produce  the 
selling  figure. 

This  kind  of  business  management  has  some- 
times produced  satisfactory  and  profitable  results, 
and  men  have  made  money  at  it,  but  it  has  been 
in  spite  of  the  method  rather  than  on  account  of 
it.  The  element  of  luck  has  entered  altogether 
too  much  into  the  proposition. 

Merchants  are  now  beginning  to  take  more  no- 
tice of  the  necessity  for  care  in  handling  their 
finances.  They  realize  that  what  has  sometimes 
appeared  to  be  a  profitable  sale  has  many  times 
been  quite  the  reverse. 

The  selling  of  an  article  that  costs  a  dollar  for 
$1.25  when  the  cost  of  doing  business  in  that 
store  is  25  per  cent.,  as  it  often  is  in  a  city  store, 
1 88 


Store  Management — Complete 

instead  of  producing  a  small  profit  produces  an 
actual  loss. 

The  idea  that  so  long  as  most  of  the  goods  are 
sold  for  a  price  that  covers  the  cost  of  selling 
and  something  beside,  some  articles  can  be  sold 
for  a  small  gross  profit  and  produce  just  so  much 
"  velvet/'  has  passed  by.  There  is  only  one  way 
to  make  the  store  pay  and  that  is  to  see  that  every 
department  produces  its  share  of  profits  and  pays 
its  share  of  expenses.  Of  course  there  may  be 
times  when  goods  must  be  sold  for  cost  or  less, 
either  to  get  rid  of  dead  stock  or  to  bring  trade. 
In  the  former  instance  the  loss  must  be  charged 
up  against  the  department  and  deducted  from  its 
total  profits,  while  in  the  latter  the  loss  ought  to 
be  charged  to  the  advertising  account. 

If  the  store  is  not  departmentized  in  such  a 
way  that  every  department  can  be  called  upon  to 
show  a  profit  or  a  reason  why  there  is  none,  then 
it  is  necessary  that  much  more  general  caution  be 
exercised  and  all  close  sales  watched  carefully  to 
see  that  there  are  not  too  many  sales  at  a  loss  and 
that  there  are  no  unnecessary  ones. 

Every  merchant  ought  to  know  four  primary 
facts  about  his  business.  Ht  should  know  what 
his  percentage  expense  is  (finding  it  by  dividing 
his  total  expense  by  his  gross  receipts)  ;  he  should 
know  what  his  gross  profit  figures  on  the  average ; 
189 


Store  Management — Complete 

what  certain  specific  lines  produce  in  the  way  of 
profit,  and  what  his  total  net  earnings  are  each 
year. 

A  good  many  men  who  give  the  matter  little 
thought  do  not  realize  how  little  they  do  know 
about  their  store  finances  beyond  the  amount  of 
money  they  take  in  and  the  amount  they  pay 
out. 

Many  a  merchant  is  to-day  carrying  along  spe- 
cial lines  of  goods  that  are  not  paying  him  a  single 
cent  of  net  profit.  He  carries  the  line  because  he 
does  not  know  but  that  it  makes  him  money.  He 
has  never  kept  any  separate  record  of  the  gross 
profits  of  the  line  or  of  the  cost  of  selling  its 
goods.  He  knows  the  business  as  a  whole  pays 
him,  or  at  least  he  is  getting  a  living  out  of  it  and 
beyond  that  he  does  not  care  to  go. 

In  the  large  business  a  merchant  may  easily 
get  a  living  for  several  years  without  knowing 
that  his  profits  do  not  make  him  what  his  living 
costs,  and  all  because  he  is  not  sufficiently  careful 
in  the  matter  of  annual  inventorying. 

In  the  first  place  all  percentage  figures  must  be 
made  on  the  same  basis.  It  is  not  so  important 
whether  you  figure  percentages  from  the  selling 
or  from  the  buying  figures  as  long  as  you  figure 
them  all  from  the  same  basis  and  do  not  try  to 
190 


Store  Management — Complete 

compare  them  with  others  made  on  a  different 
basis. 

The  proper  way,  however,  is  to  figure  cost  of 
doing  business  upon  the  selling  price.  The  per- 
centage of  expense  should  include  the  proprie- 
tor's own  salary,  depreciation,  interest  on  invest- 
ment and  all  other  legitimate  charges  against  the 
earnings  of  the  store. 

There  ought  to  be  a  difference  of  ten  per  cent, 
or  so  between  the  percentage  expense  and  the 
gross  profit  per  cent.  It  is  right  here  that  the  net 
earnings  of  the  store  come  in.  If  the  total 
expense  and  the  gross  profit  figure  out  the  same, 
you  are  getting  your  salary  and  nothing  more  for 
your  investment.  You  might  better  be  working 
for  someone  else  and  getting  the  salary  without 
the  accompanying  risk  and  anxiety  that  you  now 
carry. 

The  difference  between  the  expense  and  the 
gross  is  what  you  get  for  investing  your  capital 
and  carrying  the  responsibility  and  chance  for 
loss. 

It  often  occurs  that  the  gross  profit  of  the 
business  is  suffering  because  of  some  one  de- 
partment or  line  of  goods  that  is  not  paying  a 
profit  and  the  owner  does  not  know  that  fact. 
Every  line  should  be  carefully  watched  and  when 
191 


Store  Management — Complete 

one  is  found  that  is  a  losing  proposition  and  is 
not  bringing  in  the  public  to  compensate  for  its 
cost,  it  should  be  thrown  out  unless  some  way 
can  be  found  of  making  it  pay. 

Store  accounting  has  something  like  terror  for 
a  good  many  merchants  of  the  smaller  class  who 
are  not  watching  their  finances  as  carefully  as  the 
big  stores  watch  theirs,  though  they  ought  to 
watch  them  even  more  closely. 

There  is  nothing  complicated  about  getting 
your  percentage  of  expense.  There  is  nothing 
complicated  about  knowing  right  where  you 
stand  if  you  will  take  the  time  to  make  a  few 
figures. 

From  the  gross  cash  receipts  of  the  year's 
business  subtract  the  gross  payments  for  goods. 
This  will  give  you  the  gross  profit. 

From  the  gross  profit  subtract  the  total  ex- 
penses and  you  will  have  the  net  profit.  If  the 
inventory  shows  an  increase  over  the  stock  of  the 
year  previous,  add  the  increase  to  the  gross  and 
net  profits.  If  it  shows  a  decrease,  subtract  in- 
stead of  adding.  This  is  the  sum  total  of  finding 
out  what  you  have  done  for  the  year  as  a  whole 
with  the  stock  as  a  whole. 

It  is  not  safe  to  estimate  anything  about  the 
business.     You  must  absolutely  know  what  every 
figure  stands  for  and  that  that  figure  is  correct. 
193. 


^  1 .. 

Every    agreement    to    close    up    early    ought    to 
include  every  merchant  in   town. — See  page  178. 


Store  Management — Complete 

If  the  day  arrives  when  you  want  to  sell  your 
business,  the  buyer  will  want  something  beside 
estimates.  The  fact  that  you  have  paid  all  your 
bills  and  apparently  made  a  good  living  and  ac- 
cumulated something  beside  will  not  prove  to 
the  prospective  buyer  that  you  have  made  any 
estimated  net  profit.  The  buyer  of  a  business 
will  insist  upon  seeing  just  what  you  have  done 
and  how  you  have  done  it.  He  will  even  want 
to  see  your  bank  book  and  inquire  about  excep- 
tional items  that  might  indicate  padding  of  some 
sort. 

In  figuring  the  amount  of  money  it  has  cost 
you  to  do  business  during  the  year  many  things 
ought  properly  to  be  taken  into  consideration 
before  announcing  your  profits  on  your  invest- 
ment. 

To  begin  with  if  you  have  real  estate  that  is 
being  used  in  the  business,  it  cannot  be  assumed 
that  you  pay  no  rent  and  it  should  not  be  as- 
sumed that  what  is  equivalent  to  rent  is  what  it 
costs  you  to  keep  up  the  property.  You  should 
charge  the  business  with  what  rent  you  would 
have  to  pay  for  the  property  if  it  were  rented 
instead  of  owned,  since  if  you  were  not  using  it 
for  your  own  business  you  could  be  renting  it 
for  that  sum. 

There  should  also  be  included  interest  on  the 
193 


Store  Management — Complete 

investment  in  force  at  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
though  this  ought  not  to  include  the  real  estate 
since  you  are  allowing  a  rental  on  that. 

I  have  had  communications  now  and  then  from 
merchants  who  do  not  include  their  own  services 
in  their  expenses.  One  man,  I  recall,  ran  his 
store  himself  with  only  his  wife's  assistance  and 
figured  his  store  expenses  as  not  including  any 
clerk  hire  at  all,  and  made  his  prices  on  that 
basis,  even  advertising  that  because  he  had  to 
pay  no  clerk  hire  he  could  sell  goods  so  much 
cheaper  than  the  other  merchants.  The  expense 
account  that  does  not  include  an  item  allowing 
for  the  proprietor's  salary  at  what  he  could  get 
elsewhere  is  not  complete. 

From  the  net  should  also  be  figured  the  de- 
preciation upon  the  stock  of  goods  that  is  car- 
ried over.  In  other  words,  in  making  the  in- 
ventory, allowance  must  be  made  for  deprecia- 
tion of  both  stock  and  fixtures.  There  should 
also  be  an  allowance  made  yearly  for  deprecia- 
tion of  accounts,  as  well  as  for  the  totally  lost 
accounts  of  the  year. 

Subscriptions  to  trade  journals,  donations  to 
charitable  causes,  etc.,  should  be  included  in  ex- 
penses, unless  you  have  a  family  expense  which 
covers  all  forms  of  charity  giving. 

If  you  want  to  know  what  you  are  actually 
194 


Store  Management — Complete 

making  on  any  particular  goods,  subtract  the  ex- 
pense per  cent,  of  that  selling  price  from  the 
selling  price  and  the  net  cost  from  the  remainder 
and  you  will  have  the  net  profit  on  the  item. 
This  proceeding  will  open  the  average  merchant's 
eyes  if  applied  to  a  number  of  pieces  of  stock. 

When  a  year's  per  cent,  of  expense  has  been 
figured  up,  it  should  supply  a  basis  for  marking 
goods  during  the  succeeding  year.  For  instance, 
if  you  find  that  your  percentage  of  expense  for 
19 —  has  been  20  per  cent.,  you  will  be  foolish  if 
you  continue  to  mark  your  new  goods  with  a 
price  that  will  show  a  profit  of  only  20  per  cent, 
or  less.  One  of  the  most  important  results  of 
careful  attention  to  expenses  is  the  ability  to 
forestall  disaster  by  raising  prices  before  losses 
from  too  cheap  selling  have  become  so  obvious 
as  to  force  themselves  upon  your  attention. 

And  in  figuring  profits  one  ought  not  to  hesi- 
tate to  put  on  a  large  profit  wherever  it  can 
safely  be  done.  It  is  impossible  to  fix  an  arbi- 
trary profit  and  apply  it  to  all  goods  throughout 
the  stock.  It  is  the  average  that  must  be  right 
and  this  is  to  be  maintained  by  putting  a  large 
profit  on  all  items  that  will  allow  it  and  thus 
making  up  for  some  of  the  short  profit  lines. 

In  a  case  which  recently  came  to  my  notice 
a  concern  doing  a  large  retail  dry  goods  business 
195 


Store  Management — Complete 

found  at  the  end  of  the  year  that  while  they  had 
sold  a  large  amount  of  goods  and  apparently  at 
a  fair  profit,  the  profit  was  not  there  on  January 
first.  No  amount  of  figuring  served  to  show 
just  where  the  fallacy  lay.  At  considerable  ex- 
pense they  installed  a  working  plan  by  which  they 
could  subsequently  tell  at  any  time  how  the  busi- 
ness stood  in  detail;  how  much  stock  was  on 
hand,  how  much  profit  each  department  was 
paying,  etc.  Something  of  this  sort  is  what  every 
large  and  well  organized  store  requires.  If 
your  store  is  small  you  can  install  some  sort  of  a 
system  yourself  which,  by  recording  closely  all 
purchasing  and  all  sales,  both  cash  and  credit, 
as  well  as  figuring  depreciation,  expenses,  etc., 
by  the  month  instead  of  by  the  year,  will  give  you 
very  closely  your  position  at  the  end  of  the 
month. 

It  is  sometimes  difficult  for  the  merchant  to 
estimate  properly  the  depreciation  in  fixtures, 
etc.  They  show  little  difference  from  one  year 
to  another  except  in  the  case  of  accident,  but  the 
wear  takes  place  and  it  may  be  estimated  closely 
by  making  a  careful  figure  on  the  total  number 
of  years  a  certain  article  will  last.  If  a  show 
case  can  be  used  for  fifteen  years,  then  a  depre- 
ciation of  one-fifteenth  would  be  proper  each 
year. 

196   _ 


Store  Management — Complete 

Speaking  in  general,  however,  deterioration  of 
fixtures  is  estimated  at  about  ten  per  cent,  per 
year.  Deterioration  in  the  different  lines  of 
stock  should  be  figured  in  absolute  values  as 
shown  in  a  carefully  taken  inventory  rather  than 
in  an  arbitrary  percentage. 

The  safest  way  to  keep  expense  account  is  to 
have  a  book  fqr  the  purpose  and  enter  therein 
every  item  properly  chargeable  to  cost  of  doing 
business.  When  in  doubt,  set  it  down,  for  it  is 
more  than  likely  that  the  total  figure  will  repre- 
sent less  rather  than  more  than  it  should  do  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  There  is  much  more  danger 
of  a  merchant  figuring  his  expense  too  low  and 
hence  marking  his  goods  too  low  than  there  is 
of  his  marking  them  too  high.  The  tendency  of 
the  time  is  to  get  profits  down  while  prices  are  all 
the  while  going  up. 

Better  prices  ought  to  mean  better  profits,  and 
they  will  if  the  merchants  will  look  after  their 
profits  more  carefully.  The  large  number  of 
failures  in  business  every  year  means  simply 
that  too  many  men  have  been  trying  to  sell  goods 
at  too  little  profit.  Bear  this  in  mind  when  you 
are  wondering  how  the  man  across  the  street 
can  afford  to  sell  so  cheap.  Consider  the  situa- 
tion well  and  you  may  find  that  he  cannot  afford 
to,  that  he  is  doing  it  in  the  face  of  all  business 
197 


Store  Management — Complete 

rules  to  the  contrary,  and  then  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time  with  him.  He  will  either  have  to 
come  up  on  his  figures  or  go  up  on  account  of 
them. 

No  man  can  sell  goods  long  without  a  profit. 
The  worst  cut  rate  store  that  ever  butted  into 
the  game  has  to  have  a  profit  and  it  is  no  excep- 
tion to  all  the  rules  that  govern  your  business 
and  mine.  Rather  the  cut  rate  store  has  to  pay 
a  closer  heed  to  business  rules,  for  it  is  boast- 
fully lopping  off  before  the  public's  eyes  a  share 
of  what  the  other  stores  have  been  putting  into 
the  profit  column. 

The  cost  of  doing  business  is  increasing  from 
year  to  year  and  the  merchant  who  continues  to 
handle  his  affairs  as  he  did  years  ago  and  on  the 
assumption  that  his  cost  is  not  materially  differ- 
ent is  making  an  expensive  mistake. 

The  legitimate  expense  varies  with  different 
stores  and  different  lines,  but  don't  forget  that 
little  difference  of  ten  per  cent,  that  ought  to 
exist  between  the  expense  and  the  gross  profit. 
This  per  cent,  difference  can  be  maintained  by 
keeping  expenses  down  or  by  keeping  profits  up, 
but  you  will  have  to  do  it  by  mixing  both  those 
methods  judiciously. 

In  increasing  profits  it  is  well  to  go  over  the 
lines  upon  which  competition  is  light  and  mark 
198 


Store  Management — Complete 

up  what  you  safely  can.  Then  by  introducing 
high  grade  goods,  exclusive  agencies,  etc.,  you 
can  eliminate  some  of  the  competitive  price  re- 
ductions. Get  good  prices  for  breaking  packages 
and  for  the  small  amount  of  bulk  goods.  Don't 
sell  infinitesimal  quantities  without  getting  a  large 
percentage  of  profit  on  them. 

In  reducing  expenses,  be  careful  what  items 
you  lop  off.  One  of  the  easiest  to  cut  down  is 
advertising  cost.  It  is  about  the  most  disastrous 
cut  one  can  make,  too.  When  a  merchant  sets 
out  to  cut  down  expenses,  there  stands  the  adver- 
tising expense,  as  conspicuous  as  a  sore  thumb. 
It  is  a  good  sized  expense  and  is  a  shining  mark 
for  the  knife.  It  looks  as  if  that  at  least  could 
be  cut  in  two  and  not  affect  business  very  much. 
But  that  should  be  the  last  cut  made.  Unless  it 
is  really  too  large  for  the  size  of  the  business  or 
for  its  possibilities,  it  ought  not  to  be  cut  at  all. 

It  may  be  that  you  can  get  along  with  one  less 
clerk.  It  may  be  that  your  delivery  expense  is 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  business  produced 
by  delivering  goods.  See  if  other  merchants  on 
your  street  aren't  tired  of  so  heavy  a  delivery 
expense  and  arrange  for  a  co-operative  system 
that  will  reduce  the  cost  two-thirds  or  maybe 
seven-eighths. 

It  may  be  costing  you  more  to  light  and  heat 
199 


Store  Management — Complete 

your  store  than  it  should  cost.  Your  windows 
may  not  be  working  as  hard  for  you  as  they 
should  and  that  in  a  way  costs  you  good  money. 
Your  cash  system  may  be  incomplete  and  your 
clerks  may  be  getting  some  of  the  money  that 
ought  to  be  your  own.  You  can  find  out  more 
about  the  expenses  in  Chapter  VII.  But  what- 
ever expenses  you  cut  down,  use  some  judgment 
in  the  matter  and  don't  make  cuts  that  will  net 
a  loss  in  sales  to  more  than  make  up  the  saving. 
In  other  words,  avoid  anything  like  a  penny 
wise,  pound  foolish  plan. 

And  just  because  you  succeed  in  reducing  ex- 
penses appreciably,  do  not  at  once  let  go  that 
small  amount  of  slack  you  have  acquired  by 
lowering  prices  on  some  line  of  goods.  Keep  up 
prices  wherever  and  whenever  possible.  You 
will  never  make  too  much  money  and  it  is  time 
enough  to  reduce  profits  when  you  have  to  do  it 
in  order  to  hold  your  trade. 

And  now  we  come  to  that  all  important  thing, 
the  annual  inventory  which  all  merchants  dread 
and  may  omit  entirely.  The  man  who  does  not 
take  an  inventory  cannot  possibly  know  how 
much  money  he  is  making  or  whether  he  is  mak- 
ing a  living  or  not.  He  does  not  know  much 
about  his  own  affairs  and  need  not  wonder  at 
any  business  calamity  that  comes  upon  him. 
200 


Store  Management — Complete 

If  it  looks  to  you  at  the  end  of  the  year  as  if 
you  had  netted  a  certain  profit  on  your  business, 
say  $500,  and  you  do  not  take  inventory,  you 
may  go  on  in  the  blissful  belief  that  such  is  the 
case,  while  in  reality  you  have  simply  reduced 
your  stock  by  about  that  much  and  have  just 
come  out  even,  the  $500  representing  goods  sold 
and  not  replaced  in  stock. 

Variations  of  this  consideration  might  make 
you  either  a  bigger  winner  than  you  realize,  the 
stock  being  increased  rather  than  decreased ;  or 
a  heavy  loser,  the  stock  having  decreased  by  a 
sum  greater  than  the  apparent  gain. 

In  an  average  business  it  is  easier  than  the 
merchant  realizes  for  a  variation  to  take  place 
amounting  to  from  two  to  ten  hundred  dollars 
in  stock  without  it  being  apparent  in  the  appear- 
ance of  the  goods  in  the  store.  You  who  are 
running  one  of  the  smaller  stores  may  think  that 
you  can  detect  any  very  important  discrepancy 
in  stock,  but  a  careful  inventory,  allowing  for 
depreciation,  dead  stock,  etc.,  will  open  your  eyes. 

There  was  a  time  when  it  was  less  important 
that  every  item  of  a  business  be  figured  down 
to  an  allspice.  In  that  day  competition  was  less 
keen.  It  was  farther  away.  Each  store  could, 
much  more  than  now,  make  its  own  figures  on 
goods  with  less  regard  to  what  others  were 
201 


Store  Management — Complete 

doing.  Nowadays  transportation  methods  have 
brought  us  all  into  competition  and  no  store  can 
be  run  upon  an  independent  basis.  Everything 
must  be  reduced  to  actual  figures  and  the  smallest 
business  should  be  run  on  a  scientific  basis. 

An  inventory  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
all  business  figuring.  You  cannot  start  a  busi- 
ness properly  until  you  have  an  inventory  of 
what  you  are  starting  with.  You  cannot  wind 
up  a  business,  or  even  a  business  year  properly, 
without  an  inventory.  The  man  who  takes  no 
inventories  is  like  the  man  who  would  never 
count  his  cash,  simply  indefinitely  taking  the 
reading  of  the  cash  register  for  the  amount  there. 

Like  all  tasks  that  we  dread  the  inventory  tak- 
ing is  not  as  bad  as  it  seems.  Once  into  the  job 
and  working  hard  at  it,  it  is  soon  got  out  of  the 
way.  It  should  not  be  allowed  to  drag.  Every 
man  in  the  store  ought  to  be  put  right  on  that 
one  task  and  everything  that  can  be  allowed  to 
wait  ought  to  be  made  to  give  place  to  the  in- 
ventory work.  It  will  facilitate  matters  greatly 
if  this  stock  taking  is  preceded  by  a  general  ar- 
rangement of  goods  in  the  best  shape  for  quick 
handling. 

The  goods  ought  preferably  to  be  invoiced  on 
the  basis  of  location.  The  store  may  be  divided 
into  sections  which  are  numbered  and  the  goods 
202 


Store  Management — Complete 

listed  by  such  sections.  This  makes  taking  in- 
ventory simpler.  It  makes  it  easy  to  refer  to 
any  special  item  on  the  list  afterward  and  it 
makes  it  simple  to  prove  losses  in  the  case  of  fire 
which  destroys  a  part  of  the  stock. 

All  inventory  prices  ought  to  be  figured  at  the 
market  rate  at  the  time  of  stock  taking.  To 
take  cost  prices,  perhaps  six  months  previous  as 
a  basis  is  a  mistake  and  may  result  in  a  decided 
variation  from  actual  values. 

Prices  ought  to  be  figured  by  the  dozen  when 
market  prices  are  given  in  that  way  and  by  the 
piece  when  so  quoted.  Uniformity  in  plan  of 
pricing  as  in  all  the  rest  of  the  tabulating  makes 
for  rapidity  and  accuracy. 

If  it  is  desirable  that  the  finished  inventory  be 
all  included  in  one  book,  let  it  be  taken  on  loose 
leaves  that  can  be  filed  in  a  common  binder.  At 
all  events,  get  the  inventory  down  in  such  shape 
that  it  can  be  examined  as  needed.  An  inventory 
that  is  an  inventory  only  in  name  and  in  total  fig- 
ures is  of  little  value  except  to  show  how  much 
stock  you  have  altogether. 

Many  things  turn  up  in  inventorying.  One 
discovers  more  or  less  stock  that  has  been  for- 
gotten. Some  dead  stock  turns  up.  Some  du- 
plicate live  stock  is  also  generally  unearthed. 
Much  dirt  is  also  discovered  and  disposed  of. 


Store  Management — Complete 

Stock  taking  results  generally  in  something  of  a 
housecleaning.  It  familiarizes  the  workers  with 
location  and  quantity  of  stock  and  with  prices 
and  qualities  in  a  way  that  nothing  else  does. 
It  is  valuable  breaking  in  for  a  new  man  who 
does  not  know  the  store. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  no  merchant  knows 
all  about  what  he  has  in  his  store.  The  inventory 
takes  the  lid  off  and  shows  up  the  stock  just  as 
it  is. 

It  is  a  good  plan,  in  order  to  reduce  as  much 
as  possible  the  necessity  for  listing  sales  made 
during  inventory,  to  begin  the  work  with  the 
goods  that  sell  fastest  and  work  back  to  the  oc- 
casional sellers. 

Two  men  will-  work  faster  together  on  in- 
ventory than  working  separately.  One  can  call 
the  items  and  the  other  set  them  down,  thus  spe- 
cializing the  work  a  little. 

The  ultimate  prices  need  not  be  carried  out 
in  listing  the  goods  and  in  the  case  of  stock  that 
needs  to  be  looked  up  in  the  late  market  quota- 
tions, it  is  necessary  only  to  list  the  items  and 
amounts. 

The  practice  of  bunching  the  goods  in  a  cer- 
tain section  and  placing  a  lump  value  upon  them 
is  not  advisable.     Such  pricing  is  not  done  ac- 
curately and  it  does  not  furnish  a  proper  list  for 
204      -  » 


Store  Management — Complete 

reference  in  case  of  fire  or  other  need  of  detailed 
information. 

Stock  taking  is  not  all  of  successful  storekeep- 
ing,  but  it  does  go  far  toward  making  a  business 
a  success  financially.  It  is  absolutely  impera- 
tive if  results  are  to  be  known  and  reliable. 

The  more  attention  to  financial  details  a  busi- 
ness man  pays,  the  more  he  will  know  about  what 
he  is  doing  and  what  he  can  afford  to  do. 


205 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   CREDIT   BUSINESS 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  decide  by  any  form  of 
argument  whether  the  credit  business  as  a  whole 
is  an  advantage  or  otherwise  to  the  retail  mer- 
chant. It  is  possible,  however,  for  you,  the  in- 
dividual, to  decide  whether  it  is  an  advantage  to 
you  or  not. 

Of  course  the  cash  right  "  on  the  nail "  is  bet- 
ter than  anyone's  promise  to  pay,  no  matter  how 
good  he  may  be.  Any  merchant  who  sells  goods 
on  credit,  no  matter  how  limited  the  credit  as  to 
time  or  persons,  will  lose  some  accounts  in  spite 
of  all  possible  precautions.  It  cannot  be 
avoided. 

But  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  judicious  line  of 
credit  extended  with  care  to  good  risks  results  in 
selling  those  people  more  goods  than  they  would 
buy  if  they  had  to  pay  the  cash  for  everything 
they  bought. 

There  is  little  money  in  selling  more  goods  if 
they  are  sold  to  people  who  cannot  afford  to 
buy  them,  but  it  is  possible  to  handle  a  credit 
206 


Store  Management — Complete 

business  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  only  a 
very  limited  loss  by  poor  accounts. 

We  all  know  the  difficulty  of  handling  on  a 
cash  basis  any  trade  that  comes  to  us  over  the 
telephone  or  that  is  secured  by  sending  the  clerks 
out  after  orders.  When  the  customer  gets  the 
goods  without  coming  into  the  store  at  all,  there 
is  a  large  chance  of  some  people  who  are  poor 
pay  getting  on  the  books  to  stay. 

Of  course  solicitation  of  orders  can  easily  be 
confined  to  people  who  are  considered  good  pay 
and  no  poor  pay  families  need  be  asked  for 
business  in  that  way.  Over  the  telephone  it  is  a 
little  different,  for  there  are  plenty  of  dead  beats 
who  are  clever  enough  to  send  orders  in  that 
way  and  leave  very  little  chance  for  turning  them 
down  without  an  absolute  refusal  to  part  with 
the  goods  before  getting  the  money,  and  most 
merchants  hate  to  refuse  outright  to  sell  to  some- 
one who  may  always  have  paid  promptly  in  their 
own  store,  although  having  a  bad  reputation 
elsewhere. 

If  you  are  running  a  cash  store,  there  is  no 
chance  for  much  variation  in  policy.  The  way 
to  do  is  to  make  your  terms  just  what  you  claim 
they  are,  spot  cash  for  everyone  who  buys  goods. 
Advertise  the  fact  that  you  are  doing  this  and 
that  you  are  making  no  exceptions.  Come  right 
207 


Store  Management — Complete 

out  into  the  open  with  your  statements.  Say  that 
there  is  no  use  asking  you  into  the  private  of- 
fice and  begging  for  time,  because  you  are 
adamant  upon  that  one  rule  and  that  you  posi- 
tively refuse  to  favor  one  customer  above  the 
rest. 

This  is  good  argument  for  a  certain  class  of 
trade  and  will  interest  them  by  making  them  be- 
lieve that  they  buy  to  as  good  advantage  as  any- 
one. The  average  so  called  "  Cash  Store "  is 
not  a  cash  store  at  all  and  most  of  the  customers 
know  it.  The  "  Cash "  is  simply  a  peg  upon 
which  to  hang  the  delinquent  debtors  whom  one 
does  not  wish  to  trust.  This  plan  of  manage- 
ment is  not  a  bad  one  and  in  many  instances 
works  out  to  good  purpose,  but  it  is  not  running 
a  cash  store  and  should  not  be  confused  with  the 
real  Cash  Store  basis. 

If  I  were  to  run  a  cash  store,  I  would  make 
it  spot  cash  and  nothing  less  to  everyone  who 
came  in.  The  only  way  to  get  the  advantage  of 
having  the  money  is  by  having  it. 

Most  cash  stores,  when  they  are  old  credit 
basis  stores  made  over,  have  a  hard  time  with 
some  of  the  old  credit  customers.  These  people 
think  that  because  they  are  good  pay,  they  ought 
to  be  allowed  to  buy  on  time.  They  do  not 
realize  that  one  great  advantage  of  the  cash 
208 


The  proper  way  is  to  figure  cost  of  doing  business 
upon  the  selling  price. — See  page   191. 


Store  Management — Complete 

basis,  and  an  advantage  that  you  are  counting 
upon  when  you  make  your  prices  in  accordance 
with  that  basis,  is  the  having  the  money  right  in 
your  fist  when  you  need  it. 

You  can  make  all  this  plain  in  your  advertis- 
ing. Go  right  into  details  about  the  subject 
when  the  store  is  started,  or  when  the  policy  is 
changed,  or  if  it  is  already  under  way,  do  it  now. 
Show  these  people  just  what  there  is  about  it. 
Take  them  into  your  confidence,  as  it  were,  and 
don't  be  afraid  to  give  them  hard  facts.  Do  not 
quibble  or  temporize. 

Do  not  make  the  mistake  of  reducing  prices  too 
much  on  account  of  the  ,  expected  advantages  of 
the  change  to  cash  basis,  Before  making  any 
reductions  along  staple  lines  figure  out  your  ex- 
pense of  doing  business  and  see  whether  you  do 
not  need  yourself  all  the  extra  advantage  without 
dividing  it  among  your  customers. 

Price  must  be  one  of  the  levers  used  by  the 
cash  store  to  bring  trade,  but  that  does  not  mean 
that  there  must  be  cut  prices.  Special  bargains 
may  be  used  on  side  lines  and  special  goods  in- 
stead. 

Convenience,  ease  of  buying  and  the  alluring 
prospect  of  being  able  to  pay  "  when  it  is  con- 
venient "  are  the  baits  of  the  credit  store.  Many 
people  really  need  credit.  Many  others  make 
209 


Store  Management — Complete 

use  of  it  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  merchant, 
simply  saving  themselves  interest. 

The  merchant  whose  credit  opportunities  are 
used  by  his  customers  simply  to  make  him  supply 
them  with  the  necessary  money  for  handling 
their  family  expenses  has  no  redress.  If  he 
gives  credit  he  cannot  discriminate  as  long  as 
the  customers  pay.  Of  course  the  long  time  cus- 
tomers can  be  eliminated  by  restricting  credit  to 
thirty  days. 

Thirty  days  is  long  enough  for  anybody  and 
the  man  who  cannot  pay  up  in  thirty  days  is  a 
risk  worth  considering  carefully  before  letting 
him  get  very  far  in  debt  to  you. 

There  is  no  question  about  people  liking  to 
walk  into  the  store  and  say  "  I'll  take  that,  and 
that,  and  that.  Send  'em  up  and  charge  them 
to  our  account."  It  sounds  large  and  it  is  mighty 
easy.  It  doesn't  take  any  money  out  of  their 
pockets  then  and  if  it  is  a  case  of  papa  paying 
the  bills  when  the  month  rolls  around,  they  buy 
more  this  way  than  they  would  if  they  could  not 
buy  except  for  spot  cash. 

The  question  of  whom  to  trust  is  a  perplex- 
ing one.  In  every  town  are  certain  well 
known  "  old  families  "  about  whom  there  is  no 
question.  They  are  conceded  to  be  "  good " 
210 


Store  Management — Complete 

whether  they  are  so  or  not.  They  have  to  be 
trusted. 

Then  there  are  many  honest  working  men  who 
draw  their  pay  every  Saturday  night  and  pay 
regularly  unless  some  accident  befalls  and  de- 
prives them  temporarily  of  their  incomes.  Then 
they  sometimes  get  far  enough  behind  so  that  the 
merchant  has  to  cancel  a  part  of  the  account,  or 
at  least  let  it  go  indefinitely,  which  is  the  same 
thing,  as  it  rarely  gets  paid. 

There  are  men  of  good  salaries  whose  posi- 
tions are  like  those  of  the  honest  laborer  only 
on  a  larger  scale.  They  pay  while  the  salary 
comes  regularly  and  when  it  stops  they  move 
away  and  leave  an  aching  void. 

These  classes  carry  with  them  only  the  legit- 
imate risk  of  trusting  any  "  good  "  man.  They 
pay  until  they  become  unable  and  then  you  lose. 
That  is  all  anyone  can  expect. 

The  poor  pay  class  is  made  up  of  people  who 
might  in  a  way  be  said  to  belong  to  the  above 
classes  though  they  in  reality  constitute  a  class 
by  themselves.  '  They  are  families  and  individ- 
uals who  cannot  live  within  their  incomes  and 
are  constantly  running  behind.  They  even- 
tually get  far  enough  in  arrears  so  that  they  have 
to  repudiate  their  debts  either  through  the 
211 


Store  Management — Complete 

bankruptcy  court  or  by  simply  declining  to  set- 
tle. These  people  soon  get  a  reputation  and 
right  here  the  merchants'  association  comes  into 
play  and  should  cover  these  habitual  poor  pay 
people,  even  though  they  are  people  with  honest 
intentions  and  nothing  worse  than  poor  finan- 
cial heads.  Such  an  organization  can  help  its 
members  a  great  deal  in  this  line  and  if  it  is  de- 
sired, it  can  usually  work  with  any  local  organ- 
ization in  a  near  by  town  to  give  and  receive 
information  regarding  people  moving  in  from 
such  places. 

There  ought  to  be  no  hesitancy  about  refusing 
to  trust  people  who  do  not  pay  promptly.  It  is 
a  benefit  to  them  and  to  the  merchant  to  have 
their  credit  cut  off.  It  teaches  them  to  pay  their 
bills  and  if  they  have  to  pay  they  cannot  spend 
more  than  they  earn. 

The  possible  loss  of  a  customer  who  takes 
offence  at  being  refused  credit  is  not  important 
although  of  course  it  is  better  to  have  the  good 
will  of  everyone  possible.  The  number  of  peo- 
ple who  will  really  get  mad  over  the  question, 
if  they  are  handled  tactfully,  is  small  and  you 
may  be  sure  that  they  will  not  go  about  spread- 
ing the  information  very  largely  since  it  is  more 
to  their  discredit  than  it  possibly  could  be  to 
yours. 


Store  Management — Complete 

The  bugaboo  of  fear  of  offending  people  by 
refusing  to  trust  them  is  largely  a  creature  of 
the  imagination.  Go  right  ahead  and  give  your 
customers  plain  facts  about  the  matter  and  let 
those  get  mad  who  will. 

The  big  stores  with  their  special  credit  men 
have  the  advantage  of  one  man's  time  and  at- 
tention being  given  solely  to  getting  informa- 
tion regarding  customers.  In  the  small  store 
the  proprietor  must  be  the  credit  man  in  addi- 
tion to  his  other  duties,  but  he  will  find  it  pos- 
sible to  keep  on  hand  a  good  deal  of  information 
about  customers  and  possible  customers  if  he 
will  take  the  pains  to  have  an  indexed  book  in 
which  he  writes  any  information  he  gets  about 
these  people  who  are  doubtful  pay. 

It  is  well,  before  trusting  a  new  man,  to  know 
where  he  works,  how  much  he  gets,  what  his 
habits  are  and  what  the  habits  of  his  family 
are  and  how  much  of  a  family  he  has,  etc.  It 
is  well  to  limit  his  credit  to  an  amount  that  he 
presumably  could  pay.  If  possible  he  should 
give  references  of  merchants  with  whom  he  has 
previously  dealt.  The  ability  or  the  unwilling- 
ness to  give  these  may  be  the  key  to  his  paying 
habits. 

Even  the  store  where  the  credit  policy  is 
openly  followed  may  do  a  great  deal  to  encour- 

213 


Store  Management — Complete 

age  people  to  pay  cash  by  making  cash  an  in- 
ducement to  them.  The  cash  discount  method 
is  not  generally  as  successful  as  the  use  of  some 
sort  of  premium  plan.  Anything  that  a  woman 
can  get  free  at  the  store  looks  to  her  like  a 
valuable  inducement.  Cash  discounts  do  not 
appeal  to  womankind  as  powerfully  as  premiums 
worth  half  what  the  cash  discount  might  be. 

An  offer  of  ten  per  cent,  off  for  cash  will  not 
interest  the  women  as  a  rule,  but  the  offer  of 
a  premium  which  may  figure  out  a  cost  to  you 
of  five  per  cent,  of  the  sale  will  get  her  every 
time,  if  it  is  fully  explained  to  her. 

The  making  of  a  credit  into  a  cash  business 
may  be  accomplished  with  the  use  of  such  in- 
ducements, gradually  weaning  people  from  the 
credit  idea  by  cutting  down  the  time  given  for 
payment  of  bills  and  by  offering  inducements  to 
them  to  buy  for  cash. 

One  way  that  may  be  used  when  the  time 
comes  to  make  the  final  change  to  all  cash,  is 
by  the  use  of  a  special  sales  plan.  A  big  ten 
days  sale  may  be  advertised,  the  cash  features 
of  it  being  strongly  emphasized  and  nothing  in 
the  way  of  cut  priced  goods  sold  except  for 
spot  cash.  At  the  end  of  ten  days,  extend  the 
sale  for  ten  days  more,  adding  more  bargains 
214 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  announcing  that  the  success  of  the  sale  leads 
you  to  continue  it.  When  the  second  ten  days 
draws  to  a  close,  announce  that  the  plan  of  sell- 
ing for  spot  cash  results  so  satisfactorily  and 
permits  so  many  good  bargains  to  be  offered 
that  you  have  decided  to  change  to  that  policy 
altogether.  This  evolution  is  natural  and  log- 
ical and  if  the  matter  has  been  handled  properly 
from  the  very  first  it  will  result  in  making  very 
few  disgruntled  customers.  Of  course  there 
should  be  some  special  bargains  offered  weekly 
for  some  time  at  least  after  the  change  is  made 
in  order  to  carry  out  the  idea  and  show  the 
public  that  as  you  have  said,  the  cash  basis  does 
give  them  a  chance  to  save  them  some  money. 

With  all  the  care  a  store  may  use,  short  of 
absolute  refusal  to  trust  anybody,  some  slow 
pay  and  some  poor  pay  accounts  will  get  on  the 
books.  The  collecting  of  these  is  important  and 
otherwise  they  represent  losses  out  of  the  store's 
profits.  There  are  many  little  tricks  of  collecting 
that  will  work  here  and  there  and  here  are  some 
suggestions  about  collecting. 

Some  dealers  try  making  the  monthly  state- 
ment to  a  slow  pay  man  a  few  dollars  more 
than  the  account  actually  is.  This  will  often 
bring  the  debtor  in  to  see  what  is  the  matter 
215 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  then  there  is  a  chance  to  talk  the  matter 
over  with  him  and  get  a  payment  or  a  date  when 
a  part  payment  at  least  will  be  made. 

Another  plan,  and  a  good  one  with  people 
who  are  really  honest  but  mighty  hard  up  is 
that  of  sending  them  an  offer  to  settle  for  fifty 
per  cent,  of  the  face  value  of  the  debt.  This  plan 
will  usually  get  the  co-operation  of  the  honest 
customer  and  if  you  can  get  the  account  off 
from  your  books  thus,  you  have  a  chance  to  get 
the  customer  coming  to  your  store  again  on  a  cash 
basis,  or  on  a  careful,  weekly  payment  basis. 
Many  customers  are  lost  by  reason  of  their  get- 
ting in  debt  to  the  store  and  ashamed  to  come  in, 
or  afraid  to  do  so.  Any  plan  that  gets  them  to 
feeling  that  they  are  on  a  fair  footing  with  you 
again,  gives  you  their  business  once  more. 

There  are  certain  rules  that  ought  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  all  accounts.  All  bills  should  be  ren- 
dered promptly  and  often.  The  small  bill  is  the 
easiest  paid.  As  they  say,  "  A  short  horse  is 
soon  curried/' 

Accounts  should  be  kept  posted  up  to  date 
so  that  when  a  man  wants  to  know  how  much 
he  owes  he  can  be  told  without  keeping  him 
waiting  a  minute. 

It  is  not  enough  to  know  when  a  customer 
opens  an  account  that  he  is  entitled  to  credit. 
216  „ 


Store  Management — Complete 

•He  should  be  watched  closely  enough  so  that  if 
conditions  change  you  will  be  aware  of  it. 

Don't  pay  out  good  money  to  get  bad  results 
from  a  collecting  agency.  Better  to  be  your  own 
collector. 

Make  it  your  plan  to  get  from  slow  pay  cus- 
tomers a  little  money  if  you  can't  get  the  whole 
bill.  Better  half  a  loaf  than  no  bread. 

When  you  ask  a  man  for  a  payment  on  his 
account  and  get  a  promise,  see  that  you  are 
right  there  on  the  spot  on  the  day  and  date  that 
he  said  he  would  pay  something.  If  you  get 
nothing  then,  take  a  promise  and  then  be  there 
next  time.  Keep  right  after  him  and  always 
be  there  when  he  told  you  to  come.  Leave  him 
no  excuses  such  as  being  able  to  say,  "  I  said 
I'd  pay  you  last  Tuesday  but  you  never  came 
around." 

Mr.  Slow  Pay  should  be  discouraged  in  every 
possible  way.  Head  him  off  at  all  the  corners 
and  meet  him  at  every  turn.  If  he  gets  this 
kind  of  treatment  from  all  the  stores  he  will  be- 
come discouraged  and  decide  to  become  a  cash 
buyer  and  save  trouble. 

A  good  many  of  the  slow  pay  people  in  the 

community  are  slow  because  their  storekeepers 

have  let  them  become  so.     A  good  merchants' 

organization    working    harmoniously    to    curtail 

217 


Store  Management — Complete 

credits  and  force  prompt  payments  will  do  more 
to  make  a  spot  cash  town  than  any  other  plan. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  slow  pay  customers 
can  be  induced  to  settle  through  persistent  col- 
lecting attempts.  Statements  are  generally  the 
first  form  of  effort.  These  should  be  sent  the 
first  of  each  month  anyway  to  everybody  on  the 
books.  All  other  collection  methods  are  more  or 
less  supplementary. 

When  statements  get  no  returns  write  a  po- 
lite note  of  request,  worded  something  like  this : 

Dear  Sir :  —  There  is  a  small  charge  of  $ 

against  you  on  our  books  for  goods  bought  pre- 
vious to  Feb.  23rd.  We  find  that  we  need  to 
collect  all  these  accounts  in  order  to  facilitate 
the  handling  of  our  business  and  taking  our 
cash  discounts.  We  wonder  if  you  cannot  oblige 
us  with  a  check  for  all  or  part  of  this  to-day. 
Yours  very  truly, 

Of  course  a  payment  on  account,  like  a  new 
purchase,  brings  the  whole  up  to  date  and  pre- 
vents it  from  outlawing. 

There  should  be  no  threat  of  suit  unless  you 

expect  to  bring  the  suit.     Threats  are  idle  if  not 

followed    up.     The    best    collecting    method    is 

where  a  member  of  the  firm  can  call  in  person 

218 


Store  Management — Complete 

repeatedly  upon  the  offender.  Nothing  is  as 
good  as  personal  collecting  and  nothing  makes 
a  good  collector  like  needing  the  money.  The 
merchant  who  is  a  little  short  of  money  and  has 
to  keep  hustling  after  it  all  the  while  will  be 
about  a  hundred  per  cent,  better  collector  than 
he  who  has  plenty  of  capital  behind  him  and 
never  knows  what  it  is  to  be  hard  up. 

There  is  money  in  accounts  on  your  books 
now  that  you  consider  dead  that  could  be  ob- 
tained by  persistence  and  shrewd  effort.  Don't 
be  satisfied  with  the  hackneyed  methods  of  col- 
lecting. Try  something  new  now  and  then. 
Get  into  personal  touch  with  debtors  and  keep 
so.  Don't  make  them  angry  but  appeal  to  their 
sense  of  fairness  and  honesty.  There  is  plenty 
of  manhood  in  most  of  the  people  who  think  they 
can't  pay  you  and  they  can  come  a  good  deal 
nearer  to  paying  than  they  think  —  if  you  can 
get  them  to  try. 

Of  course  it  is  important  that  you  get  your 
accounts  correct  and  it  is  very  important  that 
all  credit  purchases  be  charged.  However  we 
assume  here  that  you  attend  properly  to  these 
matters. 

When  a  customer  disputes  an  account,  if  he 
or  she  has  a  good  reputation  with  you  it  is 
sometimes  advisable  to  allow  what  you  feel  sure 
219 


Store  Management — Complete 

is  an  improper  deduction.  But  you  will  always 
be  perfectly  justified  in  insisting  upon  going  by 
your  books  unless  the  customer  has  indisputable 
evidence  that  they  are  not  correct. 

When  anyone  wants  to  pay  a  bill  with  a  post- 
dated check  or  note,  just  induce  them  to  date 
it  the  day  it  is  written  and  agree  not  to  deposit 
it  until  a  certain  time.  Never  accept  any  post- 
dated paper.  It  is  utterly  valueless  until  the 
date  arrives  and  you  take  all  the  chances  of 
something  happening  in  the  meantime.  The 
maker  may  die  or  become  incapacitated  to  trans- 
act business.  The  firm,  if  it  be  a  firm,  may  be 
dissolved.  The  bank  named  may  close  up.  The 
maker  may  become  insolvent.  You  take  all  the 
chances  of  all  these  things  and  more  beside. 

The  merchant  must  keep  constantly  before 
him  the  fact  that  he  is  in  business  to  make 
money.  Merely  selling  goods  will  not  get  him 
a  living.  He  makes  no  profit  until  the  cash  is 
in  the  money  drawer.  Accounts  on  the  books 
may  have  an  inventory  value  and  he  might  be 
able  to  sell  them  along  with  the  business,  but  he 
cannot  spend  the  money  they  represent  until 
they  are  collected.  Cash  is  the  thing  and  the 
object  of  the  credit  business  itself  is  to  get  the 
cash. 

The  only  short  cut  to  getting  the  cash  is  to 
220 


Store  Management — Complete 

get  it  when  the  goods  go  out  of  the  store.  Any- 
thing short  of  that  is  simply  a  more  or  less 
roundabout  way  of  accomplishing  the  same 
thing. 


221 


CHAPTER  XII 

WHAT   TO   SELL 

No  matter  what  kind  of  a  store  a  man  may 
run,  there  are  certain  lines  that  he  carries  as  a 
matter  of  necessity.  The  name  of  his  store 
probably  indicates  a  part  of  what  he  sells. 

He  feels  that  his  business  is  the  selling  of 
certain  goods  and  that  any  variation  or  departure 
from  that  line  of  goods  is  branching  out  into 
side  lines  which  may  or  may  not  pay  and  which 
may  or  may  not  get  him  into  disfavor  with 
other  merchants  who  may  feel  that  he  is  en- 
croaching upon  their  territory. 

Of  course  there  is  a  main,  principal  line  of 
goods  that  belong  in  your  store.  You  must  have 
those  goods  anyway.  They  are  the  reason  for 
the  existence  of  your  business. 

But  there  are  no  end  of  other  goods  that  you 
may  carry  with  profit.  It  is  your  business  to 
find  out  what  those  other  lines  are  and  to  stock 
them  with  care  if  you  feel  that  you  can  handle 
them  successfully. 

Of  course  a  merchant  ought  to  see  that  he  has 

222  - 


Store  Management — Complete 

his  regular  stock  up  to  the  mark  and  moving 
along  properly  before  he  adds  to  his  responsi- 
bilities. If  he  cannot  handle  successfully  the 
goods  he  has  started  out  to  sell,  it  is  not  likely 
that  he  will  handle  to  any  better  advantage  lines 
about  which  he  knows  less,  lines  which  may  re- 
quire more  effort  to  move  and  which  perhaps 
pay  a  less  profit. 

The  regular  stock  that  you  carry  ought  to  con- 
tain the  goods  for  which  you  have  a  steady  de- 
mand and  it  ought  to  contain  the  goods  in  your 
line  which  are  generally  advertised. 

There  are  many  lines  of  staple  goods  in  every 
store  that  are  being  advertised  by  the  manu- 
facturers to  an  extent  that  is  costing  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars.  The  dealer  who  is  wise 
is  taking  advantage  of  this  publicity  in  every 
possible  way. 

For  instance  some  well  known  article  which 
you  sell  is  given  some  week  a  full  page  display 
advertisement  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post. 
This  ought  to  bring  you  some  business. .  It 
ought  to  develop  some  new  customers  in  your 
town  for  that  article.  If  it  does  not  do  this,  the 
advertisers  are  wasting  a  lot  of  good  money. 

It  will  make  new  users  of  that  article.  Why 
don't  YOU  try  to  get  those  new  users  into 
your  store  for  their  initial  purchase,  thereby 
223. 


Store  Management — Complete 

starting  them  right — from  your  point  of 
view? 

In  order  to  do  this  you  should  make  use  of 
the  Post  advertisement.  You  should  co-operate 
with  the  advertisers.  They  will  co-operate  with 
you  because  they  know  that  they  have  got  to 
have  your  help  in  order  to  win  out  and  make  that 
big  advertisement  pay. 

It  is  necessary  to  sell  some  goods  if  the  manu- 
facturer is  to  get  back  three  or  four  thousand 
dollars  that  a  big  spread  will  cost  him. 

When  you  find  an  advertisement  of  this  sort 
in  a  popular  periodical,  cut  it  out  and  paste  it 
on  a  large  white  card.  Underneath  the  cut  out 
write  in  plain  letters  something  like  this,  "  We 
sell  these  goods  at  the  advertised  price/'  Hang 
that  up  in  the  window  while  the  magazine  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  people. 

If  your  store  happens  to  sell  magazines,  take 
a  rubber  stamp  and  imprint  right  on  or  under 
the  big  ad  itself,  "  We  sell  these  goods.  Smith's 
Store."  Or  "  These  goods  on  sale  at  Smith's." 
Or  insert  folders  in  the  magazine. 

In  this  and  in  similar  ways  it  is  possible  to 
get  some  of  the  results  of  the  money  spent  in  gen- 
eral advertising. 

In  order  that  you  may  know  what  the  general 
advertisers  are  doing  be  prepared  in  advance 
224 


Keep   an   index   book   in  which   to   write  any 

information  about  the  people  who  are 

doubtful  pay.— See  page  213. 


Store  Management — Complete 

for  any  such  advertising  campaign  as  this,  you 
ought  to  read  your  trade  journals  carefully  since 
practically  every  big  advertising  campaign  is 
mentioned  ahead  of  time  in  their  pages. 

There  are  some  dealers  who  will  not  stock 
new  goods  advertised  on  a  big  scale.  They  say 
"  Our  shelves  are  too  full  now.  We  have  got 
more  kinds  of  goods  along  this  line  than  there 
is  any  market  for  and  we  don't  want  to  increase 
our  stock  by  loading  up  with  a  lot  of  plunder 
that  won't  sell." 

There  have  been  cases  where  flash-in-the-pan 
campaigns  have  been  started  and  have  resulted 
in  loading  up  the  dealers  with  unsalable  goods. 
However,  such  instances  are  rare.  They  are 
rare  because  the  advertisers  who  are  taking  these 
big  single  and  double  page  spreads  are  not  doing 
it  experimentally.  They  have  figured  out  what 
it  is  going  to  do  for  them.  They  have  done  this 
on  their  own  account  and  the  magazine  has  done 
it  for  them  because  the  high  class  advertising 
medium  of  to-day  does  not  want  any  advertisers 
who  are  likely  to  flash  up  and  then  die. 

When  you  want  to  take  advantage  of  the  big 
advertising,  if  the  advertisers  do  not  write  you 
asking  you  to  help,  write  to  them  and  ask  them 
what  they  can  do  to  help  you  help  them. 

Any  reliable  and  responsible  concern  when  it 

22  S 


Store  Management — Complete 

is  introducing  a  new  article  is  willing  to  help 
the  retailers  a  good  deal,  and  as  a  rule  it  is 
willing  to  help  them  by  guaranteeing  the  sale 
of  an  initial  order.  That  is  if  the  goods  do  not 
move  as  the  result  of  their  advertising,  they  will 
accept  them  in  exchange  for  other  goods  for 
which  there  is  already  an  established  sale. 

The  manufacturers  want  the  retailers  to  co- 
operate but  they  do  not  expect  the  co-operation 
to  be  all  one-sided.  They  are  willing  to  do  their 
share.  If  you  as  a  merchant  fail  to  get  your 
portion  of  their  help  it  is  largely  your  own 
fault. 

The  goods  for  a  store  to  sell  are  the  goods 
that  move  off  fast  in  preference  to  those  that 
go  occasionally.  The  profit  is  in  the  quick  sales. 

You  may  have  lines  that  afford  a  large  profit 
and  yet  sell  so  seldom  that  the  extra  profit  is 
absorbed  in  interest  on  investment  and  in  the 
many  items  that  it  is  proper  to  charge  up  against 
stock  while  it  remains  upon  the  shelves. 

Suppose  you  have  $5,000  invested  in  goods. 
Suppose  you  turn  this  stock  but  once  a  year 
on  a  basis  of  50  per  cent,  net  profit  on  the 
gross  sales?  You  make  $2,500.  Suppose  you 
turn  this  stock  four  times  a  year,  selling  $20,- 
ooo  in  the  twelve  months?  Twenty  per  cent,  of 
profit  on  this  gross  will  produce  you  far  more 
226 


Store  Management — Complete 

net  profit  than  the  50  per  cent,  on  the  one  turn 
and  it  is  easier  to  build  up  a  trade  on  a  20  per 
cent,  profit  basis  than  upon  a  50  per  cent.  plan. 

So  you  see  the  game  is  to  turn  your  stock 
as  often  as  possible  and  thus  make  it  possible  for 
you  to  sell  at  lower  prices  and  make  more 
money. 

In  order  to  make  the  frequent  turns  it  is  neces- 
sary to  handle  quick  selling  merchandise.  Pick 
out  your  stock  with  a  view  to  its  salability  rather 
than  thinking  only  of  the  possible  profit  it  can  be 
made  to  pay  on  each  individual  sale. 

Go  slow  on  the  goods  of  the  cheapest  class. 
Let  someone  else  build  up  a  trade  on  a  price 
basis  alone.  You  strive  to  get  the  reputation 
of  selling  goods  that  will  give  satisfaction. 

Of  course  in  order  successfully  to  sell  high 
grade  goods  it  is  often  necessary  to  have  the 
cheap  ones  in  stock.  If  you  have  a  call  for  a 
cheap  grade  of  article  and  do  not  have  it,  you 
are  handicapped  in  your  effort  to  sell  the  cus- 
tomer something  better.  The  customer  takes 
what  you  say  with  a  grain  of  allowance  since 
she  reasons  that  you  are  talking  to  make  a  sale. 

If  you  have  the  cheap  article  and  can  set  it 

right  out  when  it  is  asked  for  and  then  go  on 

to   call   attention   to   the   better   goods    and   say 

that   they    are   the   most   economical   and    satis- 

227 


Store  Management — Complete 

factory,  etc.,  you  have  the  buyer's  confidence 
from  the  first. 

Keep  samples  of  the  cheap  goods  and  don't  be 
afraid  to  show  them  but  don't  sell  them  any 
oftener  than  is  necessary  and  that  will  not  be 
often  if  you  or  your  clerks  have  any  salesman- 
ship at  all. 

When  it  comes  to  side  lines  those  should  be 
chosen  which  are  in  the  same  class  as  the  rest 
of  your  stock.  That  is,  a  store  which  prides 
itself  upon  its  policy  of  handling  only  high 
grade  goods,  should  not  in  putting  in  side  lines 
depart  from  this  policy  and  stock  shoddy  goods. 

There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  One  is 
that  if  people  have  been  in  the  habit  of  swearing 
by  the  things  that  come  from  your  store  and 
they  buy  some  of  this  new  side  line  goods  and 
find  them  faulty,  they  will  henceforth  swear  at 
you  instead  of  by  you. 

Another  reason  is  that  people  who  have  not 
known  much  about  your  store  but  have  been 
drawn  in  by  reason  of  a  desire  to  buy  some 
article  in  a  new  side  line,  if  they  find  the  side 
line  goods  poor,  will  consider  that  your  store 
is  that  way  all  along  the  line  and  you  will  lose 
your  chance  to  make  a  new  and  valuable  cus- 
tomer. 

Carry  out  the  store  policy  to  the  last  letter 
228 


Store  Management — Complete 

in  new  lines  of  goods.  Keep  in  mind  the  fact 
that  no  matter  what  people  think  of  the  price 
of  goods  in  buying  them,  no  matter  how  cheap 
you  sell  cheap  goods  or  how  dear  you  sell  good 
goods,  when  a  man  takes  the  goods  home  and 
uses  them  he  thinks  of  the  quality  and  the  re- 
sultant satisfaction  in  use  and  forgets  all  about 
the  cost. 

Quality  is  what  produces  repeat  orders.  Low 
price  may  get  the  man  in  for  the  initial  purchase 
regardless  of  the  quality,  but  if  the  goods  do  not 
give  satisfaction  he  will  not  come  back  for  more 
even  if  the  price  is  cut  in  two. 

The  cheap  goods  stores,  those  which  sell  only 
cheap  goods,  soon  find  themselves  with  only  a 
cheap  grade  of  customers.  The  store  that  wants 
to  grow  big  needs  the  trade  of  the  people  who 
have  to  consider  the  pennies,  but  it  does  not 
need  to  cast  off  the  better  class  of  customers 
in  order  to  get  the  middle,  or  even  the  lower 
class.  This  of  course  is  more  particularly  true 
in  the  small  town  than  in  the  city  where  exclu- 
sive shops  may  find  enough  people  of  the  ex- 
clusive class  to  make  them  successful. 

Exclusiveness   does  not  go  with  bigness   and 

it   is  more    foreign   than   American.     The    man 

who  feels  that  his  store  is  above  certain  classes 

of  customers  will  soon  find  that  he  is  avoided 

229 


Store  Management — Complete 

by  the  people  he  feels  above  —  and  that  means 
that  he  must  get  the  high  class  trade  or  fail. 
And  the  high  class  trade  is  as  fickle  as  the  wind 
that  blows.  It  may  stay  with  your  store  and  it 
may  go  to  another  without  notice  and  without 
a  sympathetic  regret.  Don't  count  on  holding 
the  exclusive,  the  artistocratic  or  the  snobbish 
trade  any  definite  length  of  time  into  the  future. 
Take  it  while  it  comes  and  be  thankful  but  let 
your  confidence  stop  there. 

There  is,  especially  in  the  small  town,  a  sort 
of  habitual  fear  on  the  part  of  the  merchant 
that  he  will,  in  stocking  a  different  kind  of  goods, 
step  on  the  toes  of  some  other  dealer. 

Now  altruism  is  a  very  good  thing.  "  Live 
and  let  live  "  is  a  first  class  motto,  but  a  more 
necessary  law  is  the  law  of  self-preservation  and 
the  merchant  who  begins  to  look  out  for  the 
other  fellows  will  soon  find  that  there  is  no  one 
looking  after  his  own  interests. 

There  are  probably  individual  instances  in 
which  you  as  a  man,  rather  than  as  a  merchant, 
would  feel  that  it  would  be  an  unwise  policy 
for  you  to  stock  and  push  a  line  already  covered 
by  a  competitor.  You  may  have  personal  feel- 
ings that  incline  you  to  help  another  dealer  and 
it  is  well  to  yield  to  any  charitable  inclinations 
but  it  is  not  well  to  be  bashful  about  branching 
230 


Store  Management — Complete 

out.  If  you  are  going  to  increase  your  busi- 
ness and  you  have  reached  about  the  limit  in  the 
legitimate  direction  of  your  main  stock,  what 
can  you  do  but  take  on  lines  that  are  already 
handled  by  others?  There  is  not  much  chance 
of  finding  brand  new  live  lines  that  no  one  is 
selling  at  all. 

Stand  by  your  own  sense  of  justice  in  the 
matter  and  as  long  as  you  feel  that  it  is  a  per- 
fectly fair  and  square  thing  to  do,  don't  hesi- 
tate to  stock  any  line  that  you  think  you  can  sell 
to  advantage. 

Other  merchants  do  not  hesitate  about  taking 
on  your  line  of  goods  and  often  to  your  material 
disadvantage  at  that. 

You  will  find  that  most  successful  merchants 
care  little  what  they  sell  or  how  they  sell  it  so 
long  as  the  goods  are  worth  the  money  and 
the  methods  are  honest.  The  big  businesses  are 
more  of  them  dependent,  are  most  of  them  de- 
pendent, upon  large  variety  of  stock  for  their 
bigness.  It  is  ten  times  as  hard  to  develop  a 
big  retail  business  on  one  line  of  goods  as  it  is 
to  develop  it  on  ten  lines. 

One  line  brings  in  only  the  people  who  want 
that  line,  the  people  who  realize  before  coming 
that  they  want  it.  Two  lines  bring  in  the  peo- 
ple who  want  each  of  those  lines  and  those  who 
231 


Store  Management — Complete 

come  to  buy  one  line  often  stop  to  buy  the 
other  also.  The  same  plan  holds  good  with  the 
addition  of  an  indefinite  number  of  lines  though 
in  order  to  get  the  full  effect  it  is  necessary  for 
the  customer  to  seek  all  the  other  lines  and  this 
is  often  impossible. 

The  mail  order  house,  selling  as  it  does  on 
price  chiefly,  is  competition  that  calls  for  prices 
to  meet  it. 

The  best  way  to  meet  the  mail  order  house  is 
to  meet  it  fairly  and  squarely  on  price  and  de- 
pend upon  salesmanship  to  get  the  business  into 
a  profitable  grade  of  goods. 

If  the  mail  order  catalog  advertises  an  article 
in  your  line  for  a  certain  low  price,  find  out 
definitely  what  grade  of  goods  it  is  offering  at 
that  figure.  Get  a  sample  of  the  article  and  have 
it  ready  to  show  to  doubting  customers.  Then 
side  by  side  with  it  place  a  superior  grade  of 
goods  that  pays  a  profit  and  that  will  give  the  cus- 
tomer satisfaction. 

Tell  the  customer  that  if  he  wants  that  mail 
order  grade,  there  it  is.  Damn  it  with  faint 
praise.  Show  him  in  actuality  what  he  has  only 
seen  in  the  picture  before  and  you  will  show 
him  that  there  is  a  lot  of  difference  between  the 
way  a  cheap  article  looks  in  the  picture  book 
232 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  the  way  it  looks  when  it  is  taken  home  for 
use. 

The  kind  of  goods  that  compete  best  with  mail 
order  goods  are  those  that  sell  for  a  moderate 
price,  not  too  much  above  the  mail  order  figure 
but  far  enough  above  to  give  a  quality  that  will 
produce  satisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  cus- 
tomer. 

If  a  man  buys  an  article  cheap  from  the  mail 
order  house  and  takes  it  home  and  uses  it  and 
it  goes  to  pieces  before  he  has  had  a  chance 
to  find  out  whether -he  liked  it  or  not,  no  matter 
whether  it  is  a  lawn  mower,  a  fountain  pen  or 
a  tooth  pick,  he  will  be  sore  and  if  his  neighbor 
has  a  similar  article  bought  from  you  that  is 
giving  satisfaction  at  a  price  not  noticeably 
higher,  probably  no  higher  when  freight,  etc., 
are  considered,  that  first  man  will  be  apt  to  come 
to  you  another  time  and  get  what  his  neighbor 
got.  He  will  unless  he  is  a  fool  and  you  must 
make  your  plans  without  reference  to  the  ex- 
ceptions. 

If  you  want  to  develop  a  mail  order  business 
yourself,  you  can  do  this  to  advantage  by  adding 
single  side  lines  that  are  easily  sold  in  that  way. 

These  lines  should  comprise  goods  that  are 
popular  sellers,  goods  that  can  be  sent  readily 

233 


Store  Management — Complete 

by  mail  and  that  will  give  the  buyers  satisfac- 
tion. 

When  you  get  an  out  of  town  customer  into 
the  store  and  succeed  in  selling  him  something 
he  will  like,  take  pains  to  make  it  plain  to  him 
that  you  will  appreciate  his  repeat  orders  by 
mail. 

Tell  him  how  to  send  his  order,  how  you  will 
ship  the  goods  and  how  much  he  should  add 
for  transportation.  Put  your  store  name  on  the 
goods  he  buys  so  that  he  will  be  reminded  of 
you  until  he  uses  them  up  and  will  know  then 
how  to  get  more. 

The  way  to  get  mail  order  business  is  to  have 
something  that  people  want  and  to  make  it  easy 
for  them  to  send  to  you  for  it. 

There  are  plenty  of  people  to-day  who  have 
made  purchases  in  your  store  and  have  gone 
away  to  wish  that  they  had  some  more  of  the 
same  thing  and  they  plan  that  when  they  come 
to  your  town  again,  or  when  someone  is  com- 
ing by  whom  they  can  send  they  can  get  more, 
but  that  makes  a  very  indefinite  time  and  you 
probably  do  not  get  the  business  in  the  end. 
They  go  without  the  goods  or  they  find  them 
elsewhere  nearer  home. 

You  ought  anyway  to  keep  a  record  of  out  of 
town  sales  and  the  names  and  addresses  of  the 
234 


Store  Management — Complete 

people  to  whom  they  are  made,  as  far  as  they 
can  be  obtained.  To  such  a  list  you  can  send  form 
letters  calling  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  you 
are  ready  to  duplicate  the  goods  they  bought  if 
they  wish  more  of  them. 

Of  the  greatest  help  in  developing  new  lines 
or  in  choosing  them,  as  well  in  keeping  the 
main  lines  up  to  the  mark  are  your  trade  jour- 
nals. 

And  right  here,  I  want  to  urge  upon  every 
reader  the  desirability  of  following  the  trade 
journals  closely. 

You  ought  to  have  one  or  more  good  journals 
that  cover  your  chief  line  of  goods  and  you 
ought  to  have  journals  covering  the  side  lines 
you  handle.  It  seems  foolish  to  a  dealer  to 
take  a  trade  journal  on  account  of  a  line  of 
goods  which  he  carries  only  as  an  unimportant 
side  issue,  but  many  a  merchant  has,  by  studying 
the  possibilities  of  certain  side  lines  and  by 
reading  the  advertising  in  the  trade  journals  of 
those  lines,  been  thus  enabled  to  make  those  side 
lines  of  an  importance  exceeded  only  by  the 
chief  line  he  carries.  And  sometimes  the  branch 
line  has  gone  ahead  of  the  main  business  of  the 
store  and  beaten  it  out. 

Don't  stop  with  taking  a  trade  journal  and 
glancing  through  it  when  it  comes,  though  that 
235 


Store  Management — Complete 

is  better  than  dumping  it  into  the  waste  basket 
unopened,  but  go  through  it  and  examine  every 
page  with  as  much  care  as  if  you  expected  to  find 
a  dollar  bill  hidden  on  that  page.  You  may 
easily  find  there  what  will  mean  to  you  many 
dollar  bills. 

Personally  I  get  trade  journals  in  every  line 
I  sell  in  my  store,  and  I  do  more,  I  take  some 
journals  that  are  entirely  outside  of  my  line. 
I  do  this  because  the  ideas  that  other  merchants 
in  other  lines  find  good  I  can  make  just  as  val- 
uable in  my  line  by  adapting  them  a  little  bit. 

There  are  no  end  of  brains  put  into  the  mak- 
ing of  trade  journals.  The  editors  are  just  as 
anxious  to  make  them  of  value  to  their  readers 
as  their  readers  are  to  have  them  do  so.  If 
you  find  fault  with  your  journals,  write  and 
tell  the  editor  what  you  want.  He  wants  to 
hear  from  the  readers.  He  finds  it  mighty  hard 
work  to  get  them  to  express  their  opinions  and 
since  editors  are  human,  like  everyone  else,  they 
cannot  tell  what  people  want  unless  those  people 
tell  them. 

Read  your  trade  journals  with  care  and  either 
file  them  complete  or  make  a  scrap  book  and 
paste  into  it  every  worth-while  item  found  in 
those  journals. 

The  trade  journal  ought  to  be  your  prophet 
236  _ 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  general  adviser  and  if  you  accept  it  in  that 
capacity  and  do  not  find  the  plan  profitable  you 
will  be  the  first  man  I  ever  heard  of  who  met 
with  that  result. 


237 


CHAPTER  XIII 

% 

PREMIUM    GIVING 

Premium  giving  to  get  or  to  hold  trade  is 
so  common  nowadays  as  to  be  almost  universal. 
If  it  could  be  entirely  eliminated  from  business, 
from  the  giving  of  a  cigar  to  the  man  who 
buys  freely  or  who  settles  his  bill,  right  through 
all  grades  up  to  the  buying  of  the  patronage  of 
the  richest  family  in  town  by  giving  their  pur- 
chasing agent  a  rake-off,  the  mercantile  world 
would  be  saved  a  tremendous  amount  of  money 
to  be  added  directly  to  its  net  profits. 

However  there  is  no  possibility  of  disposing 
of  premium  giving  to  any  such  extent.  There 
will  always  be  the  opportunity  for  merchants 
to  secure  favor  and  custom  by  giving  something 
more  for  the  money  than  the  mere  goods  bought. 

This  means  that  the  man  who  uses  such  means 
in  the  most  attractive  way  will  reap  the  richest 
results.  It  is  not  the  merchant  who  gives  the 
largest  money  value  with  goods  who  will  draw 
the  most  trade  by  the  means.  It  is  he  who 
offers  his  premiums  in  the  way  that  will  interest 

238  - 


Store  Management — Complete 

and  appeal  to  the  most  people.  There  is  a  psy- 
chological element  in  the  matter. 

For  instance,  you  may  offer  your  customers 
checks  with  all  cash  purchases,  amounting  to  a 
five  per  cent,  discount  when  returned  in  lots  of 
ten  dollars  or  more.  Your  neighbor  may  offer 
for  the  same  kind  of  checks  premiums  that  cost 
him  less  than  five  per  cent,  of  their  value  in 
checks,  and  yet  the  man  who  carries  the  line  of 
premium  goods  will  get  his  checks  saved  by 
pretty  nearly  all  his  regular  customers  while 
only  a  very  small  per  cent,  will  save  checks  for 
the  promised  five  per  cent,  in  money. 

If  men  were  the  buyers  and  shoppers,  the  re- 
sult might,  I  say  MIGHT  be  in  favor  of  the 
cash  rebate,  but  women  do  most  of  the  buying 
and  women  are  attracted  much  more  by  a  dis- 
play of  alluring  gifts,  premium  goods,  than  by 
the  promise  of  money  at  an  indefinite  day.  Be- 
sides, the  premium  goods  can  be  listed  at  a  value 
quite  a  bit  higher  than  their  actual  cost  which 
will  make  them  appear  all  the  better  as  an  at- 
traction. 

Does  it  pay  to  give  premiums? 

Without  a  doubt  it  does  pay  when  judiciously 
done.  No  advertising  or  business-getting  effort 
pays  unless  it  is  conducted  wisely.  There  are 
undoubtedly  many  individual  instances  where  it 

239 


Store  Management — Complete 

would  not  pay  to  use  premiums.  These,  how- 
ever, merely  serve  to  prove  the  rule.  Judicious 
premium  giving  pays. 

It  pays  to  give  the  farmer  who  drives  in  on 
Saturday  and  buys  a  big  bill  of  goods  from  you 
a  cigar  and  something  to  take  home  to  the  chil- 
dren. 

It  pays  to  give  Mr.  Moneybag's  butler  his 
little  five  per  cent,  rebate  on  his  master's  sup- 
plies. It  pays  to  make  it  an  object  for  the  pur- 
chaser of  small  lots  to  buy  ALL  of  those  small 
lots  from  you  instead  of  scattering  them  here 
and  there  all  over  town. 

In  some  cases  it  pays  to  do  these  things  be- 
cause if  you  did  not  do  them  they  would  be  done 
by  the  other  fellow  and  he  would  get  the  busi- 
ness. In  other  words  premium  giving  is  some- 
times necessary  only  as  a  means  of  self-defence, 
though  in  cases  where  it  has  no  other  excuse,  if 
both  you  and  the  other  fellow,  your  competitor, 
were  to  omit  the  practice,  you  would  both  save 
money  —  to  spend  it  in  trying  by  some  other 
methods  to  get  ahead  of  each  other.  Two  live, 
active,  competing  merchants  are  certain  to  de- 
velop more  or  less  costly  methods  of  business 
getting  and  perhaps  it  might  as  well  be  premium 
giving  that  uses  up  their  surplus  as  foolish  forms 
of  advertising. 

240 


Lines  that  afford  a  large  profit,  yet  sell  so  slowly 

that  the  extra  profit  is  absorbed  in  interest. — 

See  page  226. 


Store  Management — Complete 

When  a  number  of  competing  stores  form  an 
agreement  to  abolish  some  certain  practice  which 
they  feel  has  come  to  be  a  burden,  part  of  those 
stores  will  benefit  by  the  change. 

Just  as  in  abolishing  the  giving  of  premiums 
by  a  certain  line  of  stores  the  stores  with  little 
capital  and  a  lack  of  ability  to  carry  a  good  line  of 
premiums  would  be  placed  on  a  par  with  the 
store  with  all  kinds  of  money  to  handle  the 
premium  business  properly. 

Nearly  all  the  rules  that  apply  to  the  so  called 
legitimate  forms  of  advertising  apply  to  pre- 
mium giving. 

The  expense  of  premiums  should  be  charged 
to  the  advertising  account  and  its  total  should 
be  kept  well  within  the  proper  limitations.  Un- 
less premiums  are  necessary  in  order  to  meet  the 
premium  giving  of  other  stores  and  thus  enable 
one  to  hold  trade,  they  must  be  made  to  produce 
new  business. 

Premium  giving  which  does  not  produce  busi- 
ness, like  advertising  that  does  not  produce  busi- 
ness, is  a  useless  expense.  If  a  merchant  is 
simply  giving  customers  so  much  bonus  for  trade 
that  they  would  give  him  anyway,  he  is  throwing 
away  his  premium  money. 

No  store  can  live  long  unless  it  develops  new 
customers.  The  old  customers  will,  some  of 
241 


Store  Management — Complete 

them,  move  out  of  town,  some  will  die,  some 
will  be  inveigled  away  by  other  stores.  Unless 
your  store  gets  new  customers,  it  will  soon  be 
lost  in  the  shuffle. 

In  order  to  make  premiums  produce  new  cus- 
tomers the  fact  that  you  are  giving  them  must  be 
exploited  continually  among  people  who  are  not 
your  customers,  among  newcomers  in  town, 
among  people  in  adjacent  districts  who  ought  to 
be  trading  in  your  town,  but  who  are  habitually 
going  elsewhere.  This  can  be  done  best  by  the 
use  of  circular  letters. 

And  in  this  connection  it  is  well  for  any  group 
of  merchants,  any  merchants'  association  repre- 
senting a  town,  to  consider  before  adopting  a 
resolution  abolishing  the  use  of  trading  stamps 
or  coupon  or  premium  schemes  among  its  mem- 
bers. There  may  be  a  nearby  town  that  will 
take  advantage  of  such  a  condition  and  lure 
away  much  of  the  business  that  it  has  not  been 
getting  under  previous  conditions. 

And  any  agreement  among  merchants  to  abol- 
ish premiums  should  be  made  to  include  ALL 
merchants  in  town.  Otherwise  some  little  fel- 
low who  has  limited  capital  but  unlimited  ability 
and  ambition  may  take  advantage  of  his  exemp- 
tion from  any  such  agreement  and  begin  to 
grow  at  an  unexpected  pace. 
242 


Store  Management — Complete 

The  use  or  non-use  of  premiums  then  would 
seem  to  call  for  individual  decision  in  the  case 
of  every  individual  merchant.  No  hard  and 
fast  rule  can  be  laid  down  for  all  cases. 

I  would,  however,  strongly  advise  any  mer- 
chant to  consider  well  both  sides  and  all  phases 
of  the  question  before  going  into  it.  It  may  be 
just  what  he  needs  to  remedy  faulty  conditions 
and  to  bolster  up  a  failing  business.  It  may  be 
that  it  would  prove  of  no  advantage  to  anyone 
but  his  customers. 

But  if  a  merchant  is  to  use  premiums  he  should 
see  that  he  uses  them  in  the  way  that  will  pro- 
duce the  least  work,  the  least  expense,  and  the 
greatest  returns. 

Probably  the  plan  that  will  produce  the  least 
work  is  to  take  up  one  of  the  numerous  forms  of 
trading  stamps  put  out  by  concerns  in  the  pre- 
mium business  and  simply  hand  out  the  stamps 
with  purchases  as  agreed.  This,  however,  in- 
volves paying  the  trading  stamp  people  a  profit 
on  their  goods  and  their  business.  The  cost  of 
these  stamps  is  paid  by  the  merchant  He  can- 
not raise  prices  any  to  cover  that  cost.  The 
cost  of  the  stamps  includes  the  cost  of  the 
premiums,  a  profit  on  them  to  the  trading  stamp 
company  and  also  all  the  expenses  of  that  com- 
pany for  handling  its  business. 
243 


Store  Management — Complete 

And  right  here  I  want  to  remind  the  merchant 
using  trading  stamps  that  it  is  a  poor  plan  to 
begin  offering  "  double  trading  stamps  "  on  cer- 
tain days  or  in  any  other  way  to  precipitate  a 
trading  stamp  war,  which  is  in  fact  nothing  more 
than  a  competition  to  see  who  will  cut  a  price 
the  farthest. 

The  merchant  who  handles  his  own  premium 
proposition  in  its  entirety  is  certain  to  save 
money  on  its  cost  when  done  by  the  trading 
stamp  plan.  Of  course  he  is  not  co-operating 
with  other  merchants  and  enabling  people  to 
combine  the  stamps  received  from  him  with  those 
from  other  sources,  but  he  is  doing  all  his  work 
for  his  own  store.  These  same  other  merchants 
having  your  kind  of  stamps,  though  presumbably 
in  other  lines  of  trade,  do  lap  over  into  your  line 
in  innumerable  cases. 

You  can  give  people  enough  better  value  for 
the  money  if  you  buy  your  own  premium  goods 
so  that  they  will  save  your  coupons,  even  though 
they  cannot  combine  them  with  others. 

The  kind  of  coupons  to  use  varies  in  different 
stores.  The  plan  that  is  probably  simplest  and 
easiest  is  the  use  of  checks  issued  by  a  check 
primming  cash  register. 

The  checks  bear  the  amount  of  the  purchase, 
the  initial  of  the  clerk  making  the  sale,  the  date 
244 


Store  Management — Complete 

of  the  sale  and  printed  matter  which  may  tell 
how  the  checks  are  to  be  used  to  secure  pre- 
miums. 

In  a  store  which  does  not  use  the  cash  register 
system,  numbered  and  priced  coupons  may  be 
used,  following  any  plan  that  the  manager  thinks 
best  to  adopt.  In  a  store  where  the  sales  are 
mainly  five,  ten  and  twenty-five  cents  or  multi- 
ples thereof,  checks  or  coupons  of  those  amounts 
can  be  used  exclusively. 

In  using  these  premium  checks  they  should 
never  be  given  with  any  but  spot  cash  purchases, 
meaning  purchases  where  the  money  is  paid 
when  the  goods  are  taken  away,  not  the  next  day, 
or  even  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  but  at 
the  very  time  the  goods  are  taken. 

Any  sale  that  has  to  be  charged  even  for  a  few 
hours  should  draw  no  premium  check.  And 
herein  lies  one  of  the  greatest  values  of  the  use 
of  premiums.  They  make  a  credit  business  into 
a  largely  cash  business  if  they  are  properly  ex- 
ploited. 

There  will  always  be  people  who  will  want  to 
come  in  and  pay  in  a  few  minutes  or  hours  or 
days  and  still  get  the  coupon.  There  should  be 
a  rule  that  will  absolutely  prevent  any  such 
work.  This  rule  ought  to  be  printed  on  the 
coupons  and  placed  in  conspicuous  places  around 
245 


Store  Management — Complete 

the  store  and  over  the  cash  register  or  cashier's 
desk. 

There  will  be  instances  calling  for  considerable 
tact  to  keep  the  customer  satisfied  and  yet  avoid 
violating  the  above  rule.  People  will  telephone 
in  for  goods  to  be  brought  to  the  house  and  ex- 
pect to  come  in  later  and  pay  and  get  the  coupon. 
In  such  cases,  the  coupon  should  be  sent  with  the 
goods  and  the  messenger  instructed  to  explain 
that  if  the  coupon  is  desired  he  must  be  paid  for 
the  goods.  He  should  be  provided  with  proper 
authority  and  plenty  of  change,  and  if  the  cus- 
tomer tends  payment  and  the  messenger  cannot 
accept  it  for  any  special  reason,  it  may  be  that 
fairness  and  common  sense  dictate  that  the 
coupon  should  be  given  later  when  the  amount 
is  paid,  unless  obviously  allowed  to  run  unneces- 
sarily long. 

Then  there  will  be  times  when  goods  ordered 
for  a  customer  will  come  before  the  bill  comes. 
The  customer  may  be  in  a  great  hurry  for  the 
goods  and  you  do  not  know  how  much  to  charge 
for  them.  The  customer  is  prepared  to  pay.  It 
is  pretty  obvious  that  that  customer  is  entitled, 
if  the  goods  are  paid  for  as  soon  as  you  give 
him  opportunity  to  pay,  to  a  coupon. 

Some  stores  install  a  premium-giving  system 
and  then  act  as  if  it  hurt  them  to  have  to  hand 
246  - 


Store  Management — Complete 

out  a  coupon.  They  never  give  them  up  except 
when  the  customer  asks  for  them.  Under  such 
conditions  the  plan  will  fail.  Customers  may 
ask  for  the  coupons  once  in  a  while,  but  not  often 
enough  to  make  the  plan  of  any  value.  The 
checks  should  be  handed  out  to  everyone  who  is 
entitled  to  them  without  fail.  If  the  scheme  is 
a  good  one  it  should  be  pushed  to  the  limit  with 
every  customer.  If  it  is  a  poor  one  it  should  be 
abandoned  at  once.  There  should  be  no  half- 
way work  and  clerks  and  salespeople  should  be  so 
instructed. 

A  kind  of  clerks  may  be  supercilious  and  in- 
clined to  act  a  bit  scornful  over  the  insistence 
of  a  poor  customer  whose  purchase  is  small  but 
who  is  just  as  anxious  to  have  her  coupon  as  any 
purchaser  of  larger  quantities.  All  buyers 
ought  to  be  treated  alike  and  all  given  the  checks 
as  a  matter  of  right  and  not  as  a  favor.  If  the 
check  is  forgotten,  and  then  asked  for,  it  should 
be  given  with  an  apology  for  the  delay. 

It  is  not  well  to  put  a  close  time  limit  on  the 
coupons.  It  discourages  a  customer  to  note  that 
there  are  only  a  few  weeks  or  even  months  in 
which  to  get  enough  coupons  to  win  a  premium. 
And  as  the  end  of  the  time  draws  near  it  will 
be  difficult  to  interest  new  people  in  the  plan. 

Leave  the  offer  open  indefinitely  with  the 
247 


Store  Management — Complete 

statement  to  everyone  that  there  is  no  time  limit 
and  that  when  the  offer  is  withdrawn  there  will 
be  plenty  of  notice  given  in  the  newspaper  ad- 
vertisements, and  further  that  all  coupons  will 
be  redeemed  anyway.  Then  when  it  does  be- 
come desirable  to  end  the  time  on  coupons  for 
the  purpose  of  starting  a  new  plan  or  for  any 
reason,  announce  the  same  generally  in  advertis- 
ing space  and  ask  all  customers  holding  coupons 
to  bring  them  in  for  settlement  and  after  a  few 
weeks  of  such  notice  announce  a  final  date  after 
which  no  more  coupons  will  be  redeemed. 

It  pays  to  be  generous  in  such  a  matter,  be- 
cause generosity  will  hold  the  customer's  trade 
and  the  reverse  will  lose  it.  A  customer  badly 
treated  on  one  coupon  deal  will  never  try  the 
scheme  again,  no  matter  how  attractive  it  may 
be  made. 

It  seems  absurd  on  the  face  of  it  and  yet  there 
are  many  stores  in  which  premium  plans  are 
followed  and  handled  in  such  ways  that  they 
make  enemies  instead  of  friends  for  the  store. 
In  the  transaction  of  all  business  between  the 
store  and  its  customers  tact  must  be  used  and 
care  to  avoid  friction.  The  premium  business 
increases  the  proportion  of  business  transactions 
between  merchant  and  public  and  thus  increases 
the  chances  for  difference. 
248 


Store  Management — Complete 

It  is  often  a  question  with  the  merchant  who 
provides  his  own  premium  system  to  know  what 
to  use  for  premiums. 

The  variety  of  premiums  should  be  sufficient 
in  kind  to  provide  for  different  tastes  and  for 
repetition  by  the  same  people  without  having  to 
take  the  same  premium  over  and  over  again.  It 
should  offer  premiums  at  sufficient  different 
prices  or  amounts  so  that  all  grades  of  custom- 
ers may  find  something  to  work  for. 

It  generally  proves  wise  to  offer  premiums 
graded  at  five,  ten,  fifteen  and  other  multiples 
of  five  dollars  up  to  fifty  dollars  and  in  stores 
where  the  individual  sales  are  often  of  consid- 
erable amounts,  to  much  larger  sums. 

Since  most  purchases  are  made  by  women, 
most  of  the  premiums  should  be  made  to  appeal 
to  women  and  in  any  event,  even  in  a  cigar  store, 
it  is  best  to  make  the  premium  list  appeal  to  the 
feminine  side  of  the  household,  for  the  men  who 
will  start  and  continue  saving  any  kind  of  cou- 
pons on  their  own  initiative  are  few. 

Articles  of  utility  have  not  as  much  premium 
value  as  articles  that  are  more  or  less  of  lux- 
uries, useful  luxuries  perhaps  they  might  be 
called.  For  instance,  cut  glass  is  a  very  good 
line.  All  women  like  to  have  that  or  similar 
decorative  things  in  the  house  and  those  who 
249 


Store  Management — Complete 

can  afford  to  buy  but  few  of  them  are  apt  to 
feel  that  the  premium  plan  offers  a  chance  for 
them  to  get  for  nothing  something  they  have 
long  wanted  but  could  not  spend  money  for. 

Thus  cut  glass  pieces,  decorated  chinaware, 
silverware  and  other  table  things  make  about  the 
best  and  most  desirable  premiums  for  first  choice. 
Teaspoons  or  other  silverware  can  be  carried  in 
standard  pattern  and  the  customer  allowed  to 
take  spoons,  etc.,  one  at  a  time,  thus  gradually 
accumulating  a  set.  Jewelry  makes  especially 
good  premiums. 

And  then  goods  of  these  kinds  commonly  re- 
tail at  a  large  profit  so  that  the  value  of  the 
premium  can  be  listed  well  above  its  actual  cost 
to  the  merchant. 

The  customer  calling  and  presenting  coupons 
for  a  premium  ought  to  be  treated  with  the 
same  courtesy  as  if  she  were  making  a  purchase. 
It  takes  away  all  the  benefit  accruing  from  giving 
the  premium  if  it  is  handed  out  as  if  the  store 
were  condescending  to  bestow  a  great  favor. 

The  customer  with  the  coupons  is  entitled  to 
the  premium  just  as  much  as  if  she  were  buying 
it  with  money  and  she  is  entitled  to  the  same 
courtesy  in  the  transaction.  She  should  be 
treated  exactly  as  if  she  were  making  a  real 
money  purchase,  being  waited  on  in  turn  and 
250 


Store  Management — Complete 

given  abundant  time  to  make  a  decision  and  al- 
lowed to  exercise  choice  in  choosing  the  gift. 

The  premium  goods  should  be  shown  with  the 
same  care,  displayed  with  the  same  desire  to  at- 
tract attention  to  them  that  is  used  in  displaying 
goods  for  sale.  The  more  people  there  are  at- 
tracted to  examine  and  inquire  about  the  goods, 
the  more  may  be  induced  to  begin  saving  for 
them,  and  once  you  get  a  woman  saving  checks 
from  your  store,  no  one  can  drag  her  into  your 
competitor's  store  for  anything  you  sell. 

If  customers  wish  to  buy  the  goods  dis- 
played as  premiums,  sell  them  to  them  at  the  rate 
the  premiums  are  estimated  worth  and  it  is  wise 
to  have  an  established  vratio  between  the  face 
value  of  the  checks  and  the  estimated  value  of 
the  premiums. 

It  may  be  that  you  can  rate  your  premiums 
worth  ten  per  cent,  of  the  checks.  In  that  case 
you  have  a  fixed  selling  rate  for  the  premium 
goods  when  anyone  wants  to  buy,  and  you  have 
a  basis  upon  which  a  deal  can  be  effected  if  a 
customer  has  almost  checks  enough  and  wants  to 
pay  the  difference  in  cash.  Suppose  the  cus- 
tomer has  forty  dollars  in  checks  and  wants  a 
premium  rated  at  fifty?  If  your  premiums  are 
on  a  ten  per  cent,  basis,  you  allow  the  customer 
to  turn  in  the  forty  dollars*  worth  of  checks  and 
251 


Store  Management — Complete 

pay  one  dollar  in  money  and  take  the  premium. 
Keep  careful  track  of  the  expense  of  the 
premium  plan  and  also  keep  track  of  the  increase 
in  business  that  may  possibly  be  attributable  to 
the  use  of  premiums.  Don't  run  the  plan  a  bit 
longer  than  it  pays.  It  is  your  business  to  know 
whether  it  pays  or  not.  When  it  comes  time 
to  get  out  of  it,  do  so  as  gracefully  as  you  can, 
but  do  it.  No  better  reason  is  necessary  than 
the  fact  that  you  cannot  afford  to  continue  its 
operation. 


252     _ 


Twill  Do  Your  Advertising 

HERE'S  THE  BOOK  THAT  WILL  BE  YOUR  AD.  MAN 

This  book  on  advertising  will  tell  you 
all  you  want  to  know  about  advertising  in  the 
store, 

Retail  Advertising  Complete 

By  FRANK  FARRINGTON 
$1.00  POSTPAID 

With  this  book  on  your  desk  you  are  never 
at  a  loss  what  kind  of  advertising  to  do  or  how 
to  do  it.  Every  kind  of  advertising  is  treated  fully: 

Chapters  on  Newspaper  advertising. 

Making  an  advertisement. 

Good  speciman  ready-made  ads. 

Mail  Advertising* 

Window  Trimming. 

Advertising  Novelties. 

Outdoor  Advertising. 

Inside  the  store  advertising. 

Advertising  Schemes. 

Special  Sales. 

Mail  Orders*  etc.,  etc. 

272  PAGES  BOUND  IN  CLOTH 

There  is  no  better  book  of  the  kind  at  any 
price.   You  can't  afford  to  get  along  without  it. 

Send  us  your  check  for  a  dollar.  Keep  the  book  ten 
days,  and  if  it  isn't  worth  the  price  return  it  and  get  your 
money  back. 

BYXBEE  PUBLISHING  CO.,  440 So.  Dearborn  St.,  Chicago 


308  $AGES—180  ILLUSTRATIONS 

WAYS*™  SCHEMES 

One  thousand  Ways  and  Schemes  to  attract  trade, 
gathered  from  actual  experiences  of  successful  mer- 
chants in  various  parts  of  the  world  by  Irving  P. 
Fox.  A  book  that  swells  sales  and  increases  profits. 

NO   BOOK  LIKE  IT. 

There  has  never  before  been  published  any- 
where in  the  world  a  book  like  this.  It  gives 
detailed  descriptions  of  one  thousand  and  eight 
ideas  and  schemes  that  have  been  tried  by 
successful  merchants  to  bring  people  to  their 
stores  and  to  sell  goods.  If  you  purchase  this 
book  and  try  a  new  idea  every  day,  there  will 
be  in  it  enough  separate  suggestions  to  last 
you  nearly  three  years  without  repeating  a 
single  one. 

FACTS,  NOT  THEORIES. 

The  book  is  not  the  work  of  an  advertising 
writer,  giving  a  lot  of  theories,  but  is  the  re- 
sult of  slow  and  careful  observation  by  trained 
business  men  extending  over  a  period  of  many 
years.  The  various  ways  to  attract  trade  and 
to  sell  goods  described  were  put  into  practice 
in  stores  representing  nearly  every  line  of  re- 
tail business  and  nearly  every  part  of  the 
English  speaking  world. 

GOOD  FOR  ANY  BUSINESS. 

Almost  every  one  of  the  thousand  and  more 
ideas  in  the  book  is  of  such  a  nature  that,  with 
but  slight  alteration,  it  might  be  adapted  to 
the  conditions  governing  any  other  particu- 
lar trade.  The  book  will  also  be  found  invalu- 
able to  the  retailer  for  what  it  suggests  as  well 
as  for  what  it  says.  Many  of  the  schemes 
mentioned  will  bring  to  mind  new  ideas  which 
could  be  followed  with  equal  success. 

Price  $  1 .00  postpaid.  Your  Money  Back  if  DO!  Satisfied. 

BYXBEE  PUBLISHING  CO.,  440  So.  Dearborn  Street  Chicago 


Talks  by  the  Old  Storekeeper 

By  FRANK   FARRINGTON 
Every  Retailer  Needs  TALKS 

Talks  by  the  Old  Storekeeper  is  a  volume  of 
200  pages  (4^x6^).  Twenty-three  chapters  of 
straight-from-the-shoulder  talk  about  the 
management  of  a  store.  It  tells  about 

The  displaying  of  goods  inside  the  store. 

The  dressing  of  windows,  giving  practical 
ideas  of  what  to  put  in  and  what  not  to  put  in. 

The  handling  of  clerks  so  as  to  make  them 
of  the  most  value  to  themselves  and  to  their 
employer. 

The  honesty  and  dishonesty  of  employees 
and  how  to  help  them  to  keep  straight. 

Having  a  right  place  for  everything  and 
where  that  place  is. 

Advertising  of  all  kinds,  with  good,  straight 
talk  on  how  to  use  the  newspapers. 

How  to  keep  the  local  trade  from  going  to  the 
city  or  to  a  mail  order  house. 

The  Old  Storekeeper's  experiences  with  the 
money-back-if-you-want-it  plan. 

Some  experiences  in  selling  goods  at  cost, 
with  the  results. 

A  woman's  ideas  on  how  a  store  should  be 
run  to  get  her  trade. 

Prices;  what  kind  of  prices  to  use,  how  to 
use  them,  and  when  and  where. 

Salesmanship,  and  the  ways  to  make  pleased 
and  satisfied  customers. 

It  is  a  "find"  for  any  business  man,  and  at  five  times  its 
price  no  merchant  can  afford  to  be  without  it. — E.  F. 
Hixson,  Hixson,  Texas. 

"Talks"  is  well  worth  ten  times  its  price  to  any  mer- 
chant.— Casper  Krebs,  Madison,  Ind. 

It  ought  to  be  read  by  every  merchant  in  the  land. — 
Rex,  Henry  &  Co.,  Marietta,  Ohio. 

Sent  Postpaid  for    $1.00    Money  Order  or  Stamps 

BYXBEE    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

440  So.  Dearborn  Street  CHICAGO 


BOOKS 

By  FRANK    FARRINGTON 

RETAIL  ADVERTISING— COMPLETE 

All  kinds  of  plans  for  advertising  a  retail  store. 
$1.00 

STORE  MANAGEMENT-COMPLETE 

Covering   the    management   of  a  retail  store. 
$1.00 

TALKS  BY  THE  OLD  STOREKEEPER 

The  best  book  for  merchants,    $1.00. 

BACK  IN  THE  HARNESS 

A  sequel  to  "Talks  by  the  Old  Storekeeper." 
$1.00. 

THE  CLERKS'  BOOK 

A  volume  of  strong  talk   to  the  employees. 
50  cents. 

JOHN  MARTIN'S  CLERKS 

A  tale  of  the  store.     50  cents. 

ADVERTISING  FOR  DRUGGISTS  AND 
STATIONERS 

A   comprehensive  book  for  the  particular  lines 
mentioned.    $1.00. 

Any  of  the  above  sent  on  receipt  of  price. 
Your  money  back  if  not  satisfactory. 

BYXBEE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

440  So.  DEARBORN  STREET 
CHICAGO 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


